Sun, sea and sand... no wonder Rio's beaches are so crowded. But the green-blue ocean waters often conceal bacteria from raw sewage. Welcome to Leme, one of the six city beaches set to be rid of water pollution in time for the 2014 World Cup thanks to an ongoing government cleaning programme. Twice weekly samples are taken by the local environmental agency, INEA and examined at their lab. Swimmers can check whether it is safe to swim at their favourite beach on the INEA website , which is updated weekly. http://www.inea.rj.gov.br/fma/balneabilidade-praias.asp Beaches are considered "adequate" for swimming when less than eight thousand e-coli bacteria or one thousand enterococcus bacteria can be found per litre of ocean water. After heavy rain the ocean water becomes even more contaminated, and other detritus can be seen floating in the surface. The S�o Conrado beach is one of Rio's most polluted. Here a great number of teenagers and children from the nearby Rocinha slum take part in surfing and bodyboarding lessons. Three times a week, instructor Wanderley Silva holds morning and afternoon classes for nearly two hundred young bodyboarders. This is considered the best spot in Rio for bodyboarding..... But it's also one of the most polluted beaches in town. A canal coming from the favela often overflows and releases raw sewage under these waves. Silva is concerned with the health of his pupils: "Some of them acquired infections here, very bad, we don't deserve that. That's our struggle. We are well meaning citizens and we deserve to have a better water quality" he says. According to the INEA website the infections associated to sea bathing are not serious, being mainly gastroenteritis and eye, throat and ear infections. Children , the elderly and people with low immune resistance are most affected. The polluted canal is channelled into a pumping station on non-rainy days, when the flow is moderate. Currently, inside the station only one in five pumps is working, the others are broken. Next the sewage is channelled into a metal pipeline that takes it to an ocean outlet, five kilometres from the coast. Now the local government is expanding this pumping station and installing new pipes as part of a programme that expects to clean six of Rio's main beaches by summer 2014. "The system is going to be improved. Contaminated water is only going to reach the beach after very intense rain and the sewage from Rocinha favela will be very diluted. So we will have better conditions for swimming on this beach, which is the goal of this project" says Gelson Serva, who coordinates the Rio Sena Limpa programme. However local surfers complain that the system will only work in the absence of rain. "Yes, we are satisfied (with the work being done here). However, we feel that the water should be treated even when rain comes down from the favela, but they're not going to do that" says surfer and activist Marcos Nascimento. Recently surfers from the S�o Conrado beach held a protest during a bodyboarding championship. A group of seven held a banner above the ocean waves asking for one hundred percent sewage coverage for the city of Rio and for the clean up of S�o Conrado beach. "More than half of Rio's citizens are not connected to the sewage system at home. So we are here to show the need for the government to take action in order to reduce the quantity of sewage that is expelled onto the beaches in Rio de Janeiro. We're going to hold the Olympics and World Cup. We're making progress with many other structural issues but sewage is still behind" says Leonardo Eloy, one of the protest organisers. Whole neighbourhoods are being scanned by a robot which enters the underground storm water pipes. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/51d8134f03882d9d9e9234cb69b8266e Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 31 Jul 2015
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