Funding problems hit plan to clean Rio's polluted waterways ahead of Olympics

A consortium of Dutch government, NGOs and businesses has proposed solutions to Guanabara Bay's pollution. But cash-strapped Brazil can't pay

With the Olympic Games just months away, Rio de Janeiro has a problem: rubbish. Hundreds of tonnes of unprocessed waste flow into the Guanabara Bay every year. The problem isn't new but the prospect of Olympic swimmers and sailors taking to Rio's contaminated waters have put the issue in the spotlight.

Previous promises from Rio officials to "regenerate Rio's magnificent waterways" through investment in sanitation have not delivered results. Could the Dutch environment ministry have better luck? In an ambitious and diplomatically unorthodox move it has pulled together some of the country's leading waste experts, including businesses and NGOs, to propose a variety of innovative solutions under the name Clean Urban Delta Initiative [pdf].