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In this July 15, 2015 photo, sewage spews into the waters of the Marina da Gloria in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Extreme water pollution is common in Brazil, where the majority of sewage is not treated, and much of the raw waste runs through open-air ditches to streams and rivers that feed the Olympic water sites. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)![Brazil_Filthy_Water_Vros__1_]()
In this April 28, 2015 photo, Fernando Spilki, the head of the environmental studies program at Feevale University, takes water samples from the Rodrigo de Freitas Lake, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With little to no sewage treatment, Spilki said, "the quantity of fecal matter entering the waterbodies in Brazil is extremely high. Unfortunately, we have levels comparable to some African nations, to India." (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)![Brazil_Filthy_Water_Vros__3_]()
In this April 28, 2015 photo, Fernando Spilki, virologist and coordinator of the environmental quality program at Feevale University, holds up a water sample, backdropped by the Marina da Gloria, Zone 2, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Spilki said the tests he conducted for the Associated Press so far show that Rio's waters "are chronically contaminated." (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)![APTOPIX_Brazil_Filthy_Vros]()
This July 27, 2015 aerial photo shows the Rodrigo de Freitas Lake in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. An Associated Press analysis of water quality found dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage in Olympic and Paralympic venues. The Rodrigo de Freitas Lake, which was largely cleaned up in recent years, was thought be safe for rowers and canoers. Yet AP tests found its waters to be among the most polluted for Olympic sites. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)![Brazil_Filthy_Water_Vros__2_]()
In this July 9, 2015 photo, doctoral candidate Rodrigo Staggemeier works to analyze samples collected from the waters of Rio de Janeiro, at the Feevale University in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil. The testing conducted for the Associated Press looked for three different types of human adenovirus that are typical "markers" of human sewage in Brazil. The coordinator of the environmental quality program at the university in southern Brazil, said the tests for the AP so far show that Rio's waters "are chronically contaminated." (AP Photo/Leo Correa)![Brazil_Filthy_Water_Vros]()
In this July 28, 2015 photo, workers remove garbage collected by floating waste barriers in a canal at the Mare slum complex, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Rio's historic sewage problem spiraled over the past decade as the population exploded with many of the metropolitan area's 12 million residents settling in the vast slums that ring the bay. Waste flows into over 50 streams that empty into the once-crystalline Guanabara Bay. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)Filthy Rio water threatens 2016 Olympics
The waters where Olympians will compete in swimming and boating events next summer in South America's first games are rife with human sewage and present a serious health risk for athletes, as well as for visitors to the iconic beaches of Rio de Janeiro.
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- Filthy Rio water threatens 2016 Olympics
