Third-world countries aren't big on environmental sanitation by United States. No surprise there. Anyone who saw conditions leading up to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil knows the truth.
So don't be shocked by this: Guanabara Bay, which will be the site for 2015 Rio Olympics events, is basically a cesspool.
Despite promises made when the city became Olympic host in 2009, the body of water on Rio's eastern border is the place where raw sewage from the region's 12 million people is dumped.
That might be the most obvious and odious problem Olympic officials face regarding Rio. As USA Today notes, there are major concerns with venue construction that is far behind schedule 16 months before the games.
Consider this quote from Mario Moscatelli, who USA Today identifies as an independent biologist who closely monitors pollution in Rio's waterways.
"There are parts of the bay where you are literally inside a latrine where hundreds of thousands of people defecate daily.
"The promises made to cariocas (a moniker for Rio's residents) and the IOC by Brazilian authorities is nothing more than environmental fraud."
We're not just talking bodily waste here. Moscatelli's grotesque discoveries in the bay include hospital waste … and cadavers.
Olympic athletes might want to think twice about what they dip in the bay. Going overboard will be downright hazardous to health.
There was more filth than usual this week as the result of a fish die-off. Twaite shad, small whitish gray fish, were reported washing up by the thousands.
Rio Governor Luiz Fernando Pezao recently said nearly half the region's sewage is being treated before it enters the bay. Meeting the treatment rate goal of 80 percent is not seen as likely.
Christophe Dubi, IOC executive director of the Olympic Games, told media members Wednesday: "We are still aiming for this goal. We cannot judge until the finish line. "We are like athletes in that we are pushing toward the finish line and we should respect that every effort is being made."
Fish die-offs are a common in central Rio's Rodrigo de Freitas Lake. A similar die-off left nearly 60 tons of dead fish in the Guanabara Bay last November.
Contributing: Associated Press