#ecological restoration

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION: Cleaning up Rio’s Guanabara Bay

Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay measures 160 square miles (412 sq km) and is the largest natural bay in the world by volume. With 12.5 million people living around the bay in metropolitan Rio, the surrounding watershed has long been a dumping ground for garbage, industrial pollution, and sewage.

This map indicates the percentage of waste water treated in Guanabara Bay by municipality –– overall, 54.3% is not treated, despite major cleanup programs going back to the 1990s.  Previous clean-up projects after the 1992 Earth Summit and before the 2016 Olympics failed to fulfill promises.

Although less than half of the waste water is now treated, a new effort has been launched to clean up Rio’s great, if still polluted bay. The operating rights for water and sanitation services for Rio city and 26 other municipalities have been sold in a privatization scheme to the Brazilian company Aguas de Rio, which has pledged to revitalize the bay and bring sewage treatment rates to 90% over a 35-year contract.  Let us hope that this new program succeeds!

References:France 24,Reuters,US News & World Report,OECOGraphic, Agence France-Presse, and the American Geographical Society.