The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro are just over a year away and the city is still struggling to get ready. Preparations took another blow this week when literally tons of fish clogged the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon, which is where the rowing and canoe events will be held.
Thanks to pollution in the region, groups of fish dying at once happens often and clogs other Rio waterways. In this incident, 21 tons of Twait Shad fish are clogging up the venue. According to the Irish Times, the municipal environment secretary blamed rain and rising sea levels for lowering the lake’s temperature. But the Brazilian Environmental Defence Commission blamed man-made pollution.
CNN reports that the Rio legislative assembly, the State Environmental Institute and the Secretariat of State for the Environment are investigating the incident and other die-offs in nearby lakes.
Rio officials have struggled to keep the waters free from pollution during the games, but Mayor Eduardo Paes said in a TV interview that this might be impossible to achieve. Still, he doesn’t think it will be a major issue.
“The Olympics are also in a time that has very little rain, then this amount of debris that comes from five municipalities in the metropolitan region, with poor sanitation, is also controllable,” he told Brazil’s SporTV. “I do not see as a problem for the Olympics.”
The 2016 Games run from Aug. 5-21, 2016.