Athletes and fans alike are at risk of becoming violently ill at the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, because of raw human waste in the water.
In fact, some athletes who are in Rio for the Games and other competitions have already succumbed to stomach illnesses, including members of the Spanish and Austrian sailing teams, according to The New York Times.
Untreated human sewage is contaminating the water where athletes will be competing, as well as at the iconic beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana, where tourists will be relaxing. In most cases, raw human excrement as well as other untreated household garbage flows straight from the homes of Rio's 12 million residents into the waterways.
Sailing, rowing, windsurfing and some swimming competitions will be held in waters that are full of human feces, which contain dangerous levels of bacteria and viruses. The waters in some cases, contain nearly 2 million times the amount of viruses that are acceptable in the United States.
This means athletes that ingest only a few teaspoons of contaminated water could become so sick they would be unable to participate in the games.
Hopefully the competitors who are exposed to the toxic water will have strong enough immune systems to fight-off the viruses. Those viruses typically can cause severe diarrhea and vomiting, symptoms which often lead to dehydration and cramping.
There is also evidence the waters contain "superbugs," which are viruses that are sometimes resistant to antibiotics. These viruses can be deadly to people with weakened immune systems.
"We just have to keep our mouths closed when the water sprays up," 24-year-old Afrodite Zegers, a member of the Dutch sailing team, told The New York Times.
"It's disgusting," said Nigel Cochrane, a coach for the Spanish women's sailing team. "We're very concerned."
Rio will be teeming with 1,400 international athletes who are participating in the Summer Games and an additional half million spectators visiting from other countries.
The government of Rio was confronted about the contaminated water situation seven years ago. However, not only was the situation not improved, it appears to have gotten worse.
Two of the filthiest spots are reportedly where Olympic rowing will take place, an area called the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon and the starting point for the sailing races, Gloria Marina. Despite a pledge to cleanup Gloria Marina in particular by blocking raw sewage from flowing directly into the waterway, a sampling from June showed 37 million viruses per liter, up from 26 million a year and a half ago.
Brazil is blaming its failure to decontaminate the waters on a budge shortfall. In 2009, when the country was trying to edge-out other countries vying to host the Olympics, Brazil pledged to spend $4 billion in clean-up efforts. However, in reality they ended up spending only $170 million.
Believe it or not, much of that money was spent on getting rid of more concerning items in the water such as dead bodies and large pieces of trash like sofas, chemical waste from nearby factories and oil from tankers flushing out their holds.
"Our biggest plague, our biggest environmental problem, is basic sanitation," Andrea Correa, the top environmental official in the state of Rio de Janeiro told The New York Times. "The Olympics has woken people up to the problem."
In addition to the filthy water, another health hazard threatening the Olympics is the Zika virus. ;
The mosquito-borne virus can lead to microcephaly, a devastating birth defect in which the infant is born with an abonormally small head and usually suffers from an underdeveloped brain.
Brazil was the epicenter of the Zika outbreak earlier this year. However, Rio de Janeiro's health secretary Daniel Soranz said the number of cases have dropped-off so significantly, that athletes and spectators alike have nothing to fear.
"Since two weeks before the Games, the number of cases were almost non-existent. In the city, cases are very rare and for us it is an issue that we have more than overcome," he said in a news conference.
"Since November of last year, we have already been showing projections and scientific studies that show this won't be an issue during the Olympics," he said.