Super bacteria and the 2016 Rio Games

Thanks to Reuters' Brad Brooks (who wrote the story) and his colleague Karolos Grohmann (who shared it on LinkedIn) http://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-rio-superbacteria-exclusive-idUSKCN0YW2E8, I learned that aside from the Zika virus, Rio de Janeiro also has to contend with the presence of super bacteria in waters/venues that will host the rowing, canoeing, and swimming competitions in August. Brooks broke the story on Saturday morning and I've been watching the media to see how widely it would be picked up. The answer is not very. I have not seen mentions of it in any of the mainstream media (although I could have missed it), such as NY Times, WSJ, CBS. The New York Post did run a story on it and it turns out CBS had done a story on the subject in December 2014, when another study showed the presence of super bacteria in Rio's waters.

The story is interesting to me on a professional level because the whole problem seems to originate from Rio's poor wastewater management - apparently household waste and hospital waste has been dumped for years in storm drains that end up in the city's bodies of water. This has been a known fact at least since 2009 when the city of Rio de Janeiro promised to rectify the situation as part of its official bid to host the 2016 Games.

It obviously hasn't. While the issue goes beyond infrastructure and the country's/city's water sector, as a journalist I can't help but raise the following questions:

1) Why was Rio awarded the bid in the first place?
2) If the dumping of sewage was a known fact, why didn't anyone, such as the IOC, check to see between 2009 and 2013/14 what, if any, progress had been made?
3) As early as Dec 2014, it was obvious that nothing had been done and that the problem persisted:  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/drug-resistant-bacteria-found-at-rio-de-janeiro-olympics-site/. Yet, I'm not finding any evidence that the possibility of moving or cancelling the Games was considered.
4) Now, less than two months before the Games open, more studies are finding the same: http://aac.asm.org/cgi/reprint/AAC.02753-15v1?ijkey=ppB2DP/gtNPOU&keytype=ref&siteid=asmjournals.

I reached out to the IOC yesterday and the response they gave me was a statement from the Brazilian environmental agency INEA, which among other things states:
"The State Environmental Institute has not been officially informed of these latest analysis of the UFRJ Rio beaches with positive results for the presence of KPC bacteria (Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase).
[...]
Even as technical note from the Secretariat of the Environment and Health Department there are not enough scientific studies to co-relate contamination of KPC type bacteria in the aquatic environment. All current studies co-relate the risk of contamination of the hospital environment.
[...]
It is noteworthy that the presence of KPC type bacteria (Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase) are associated with places with high concentration of sewage, such as proximity to canals and rivers. Does not necessarily mean that human contact will result in contamination. Studies are being done globally on the subject.
[...]
The State Environmental Institute along with the state Department of Health has prepared a letter to the Olympic Committee reporting, officially, there is no evidence and no studies proving the infection of type KPC bacteria outside the hospital. Furthermore, these bacteria into contact with salt water and sunlight undergo decay (die) and do not persist in the environment."

Aside from the fact that I find this response very unsatisfactory ("doesn't necessarily mean that human contact will result in contamination"), I find it strange that the IOC is happy to accept INEA's statement, a government agency operating in a country whose president was impeached because of pervasive corruption.

I also reached out to the WHO to see what their position on the matter is. I have yet to receive a response. The same goes for the international associations for swimming (FINA), canoeing (canoeicf) and rowing (FISA) as well as the USOC. 

In an open letter, scientists and medical professionals have already called on the WHO to move or postpone the Games because of the Zika virus. Those calls are going unheeded. Here is part of WHO's response to the open letter: "Nyka Alexander, communication officer of the WHO, told The Telegraph: “Stopping the Games would not stop Zika. Because of how much humans travel around the globe and because of how much mosquitoes travel, Zika is going to make its way to other countries. Anywhere the mosquito roams there is the possibility it will transmit Zika.” (source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/28/who-and-ioc-accused-of-cover-up-over-zika-virus-threat-to-rio-ol/).

The Telegraph article also points out that there is a conflict of interest stemming from an MoU the IOC and WHO have signed but have refused to make public. WHO, through its spokesperson, denied the existence of a secret MoU.

With about 10,000 athletes competing and around 500,000 visitors expected to go to Brazil for the Games, how is this not a major public health concern? Is it possible that the IOC, the WHO, the sports federations - anyone who can do anything about this - would prefer to risk thousands upon thousands of lives (perhaps millions when you consider that the majority of those traveling to Brazil for the Games will be returning home possibly infecting others) because it would be too costly/inconvenient to move or cancel the Games? Is it?