Head of Rio’s water utility sees ’problems’ in Olympic bay

RIO DE JANEIRO – The head of Rio de Janeiro’s water utility has acknowledged “problems” with the city’s sewage-filled Guanabara Bay but insisted the Olympic city will eventually reach its goal of collecting and treating all the waste currently dumped into the waterway.

Speaking late Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press, Jorge Briard, president of Rio’s Cedae utility, added his voice to the chorus of officials saying it will be impossible to make good on the Olympic pledge of collecting 80 percent of sewage in communities that ring the bay before Olympic sailing events are held there next year.

However, he insisted that Rio has been making progress in solving its sewerage woes.

“Obviously, I’m not crazy enough to say that there aren’t problems in the Guanabara Bay,” Briard said. “There are many problems.”

He added that the initiatives aimed at meeting Rio’s Olympic targets had not taken place with the “speed we imagined six years ago,” when Rio won its bid for the 2016 games.