Our flight arrived in Rio early in the morning, and by the time we had left the airport the day had already started. While we were checking into the hotel, one of us realized that his passport was missing, because of this the rest of the group stayed at the hotel for most of the day and enjoyed some time relaxing by the pool and getting some time to sleep. From the roof top of our hotel we could clearly see a breathtaking view of the mountains and favelas and even Christ the Redeemer. At night after the passport issue had been nearly resolved, we discussed the pollution issues in the Guanabara Bay, which is going to hold the next summer Olympics. However, the bay is so polluted that there is no beach, it is just garbage and the boats can hardly leave the bay without getting garbage caught in the propellers. The bay is too polluted to hold much life in it and 60% of the cities raw sewage is washed into the bay because only 40% of it is treated. The fecal matter content is 200 times greater than the legal limit in the U.S. Although Brazil has the money and the technology to clean up the bay, its has been delaying the clean up for months and is running out of time before the Olympics. The citizens of Rio are angry and try to get the government to take action and create sanitation methods but unfortunately, the government is only interested in quick fixes for the Olympics instead of investing into long term solutions. Part of the issue is the Favelas, which are shacks stacked on top of each other in the mountains outside the city and are cities of their own. Building in the mountains means taking out plants to build which causes dirt to be lose and easily eroded. Because of this, when it rains and all of the water comes down the mountain, lose dirt comes with it and sometimes brings along the house structures causing landslides and hundreds of deaths each year. Favelas are made by the people who live in them, they are not structurally built safely and are unstable, they are squares stacked on top of each other with a water tube down the center of the structure. The water and waste that flows out of the tube goes right to the streets and travels all the way down the mountains with gravity and into the bay, with zero sanitation. Although the growing of favelas have been slowing and landslide issues are being taken care of, the sanitation issues are still being ignored by Brazil’s government. |