Rio's Relentless Beach Pollution

Rio is famous for its beach culture. But the city's water remains shockingly polluted with garbage and sewage overflow, including the beaches where 2016 Olympic events are scheduled to be held.

With illegally built drainage systems and poorly constructed sewage connections, water pollution has long been a problem for Brazil's second biggest city. According to an Associated Press report from last year, nearly 70 percent of the city's sewage goes untreated before ending up into the Atlantic Ocean and Guanabara Bay. The same report says that the average fecal pollution rate in the waters near the future Olympic Park for the 2016 Games are "78 times that of the Brazilian government's 'satisfactory' limit.'"