The governor of Rio de Janeiro, Luiz Fernando Pezão, signed a deal with several Brazilian universities and research institutions to develop a plan for cleaning up the polluted waters of the city’s sewage-strewn Guanabara Bay, where the sailing events for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games will be held.
Pezão hailed the deal as a “very important step” toward the long-promised cleanup, which has dragged on for more than 20 years. As part of Brazil’s Olympic project, authorities pledged to drastically cut the amount of untreated human sewage in the bay before the Games.