Rio, August 6, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The government of Rio de Janeiro will have to accelerate its efforts to dispollute the Bay of Guanabara, if it hopes to keep its chances alive to be selected in 2005 by the International Olympic Committee to host the 2012 Olympic Games. This recommendation was made on Tuesday (5) by the coordinator of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Brazil, Hiroshi Matsutani. In charge of feasibility studies for the Guanabara Bay Dispollution Program, the JICA discovered that the initial phase of the program is two years behind schedule and suggested that the federal government, the state government, the Japan Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) unify their positions in order to complete the project.

Matsutani, who presented the results of the feasibility study for the second phase of the program, disclosed that improvements in the bay's water quality will only be perceived in five years. The second phase of the program, with a budget of US$ 400 million, should begin in 2004, with a priority on environmental education programs for the population and the removal of surface trash and solid wastes accumulated on the bed of the bay.

The initial phase in recuperating the environmental quality of the Bay of Guanabara, which is also one of the prerequisites for holding the Pan-American Games in Rio in 2007, was resumed two months ago, after a lapse of one year, and the state government expects to conclude this phase of the project by 2005. Of the US$ 800 million allocated for clean-up and sewage disposal in the areas surrounding the bay, 75% have already been spent. (DAS)