A major effort by the State of Rio de Janeiro to clean up its waters has had a clear and near-immediate payoff: the beaches are safe for swimming, and the sea life, once riddled with disease, is making a swift recovery.
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00:00Rio de Janeiro's Ipanema and Copacabana beaches are Brazilian icons.
00:08But for decades, the surf just wasn't safe for swimming.
00:11The city's raw sewage flowed into nearby Guanabara Bay and kept beachgoers in Rio dancing on
00:18the sand.
00:22But the sea turtles that sheltered in the bay could not avoid the bacteria and virus-laden
00:27water.
00:28The Guanabara Bay has a large number of turtles and in 2022, 75% of the Guanabara Bay's turtles
00:39were found with tumors from a disease called fibropapillomatosis, which is directly linked
00:46to the quality of the water where the turtles live.
00:50Those tumors plagued the sea turtles.
00:53They'd grow around the turtles' eyes, mouth and flippers and eventually kill them.
01:00But then something changed.
01:10The state government made a major investment in how it handles its sewage and wastewater
01:16runoff.
01:17The investments have kept over 800 million liters of sewage from being dumped into the
01:39bay each day.
01:41Water quality improved and so did turtle health.
01:47And then, in 2023, for the first time in over a decade, Rio's beaches were declared safe
01:54for swimming.
01:55The turtles aren't totally in the clear yet.
02:15Teams of scientists are still checking in on the turtle population, tracking known individuals
02:20and removing tumors.
02:23And other dangers.
02:25But researchers are hopeful and see their hard work paying off.
02:48Rio's government took decisive action and the results show.
02:53Cleaner water, healthier sea life, happier people.
02:56Leon Lien and Jonathan Kaplan for Taiwan Plus.