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Feb 11
2010
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This year Rio de Janeiro´s City Hall is working hard to clean up the streets during carnival. Literally. Many males here habitually urinate on the streets, because of the very large amounts of cold beer people drink, especially in hot weather, and the very small number of public toilets.
Recent scientific study has found that public urination is physically damaging the Arches of Lapa and many road viaducts, which are showing signs of erosion caused by uric acid. And trees are suffering.
During the next few days hundreds of thousands of revellers will be following the many street parades that run along Copacabana and Ipenima beach, consuming many thousands of cubic liters of beer - which all has to end up somewhere. Traditionally, given the almost total lack of toilet facilities, people have urinated on the beach and in the water. But the volume of liquid involved leads to contamination of the sands and sea.
City Hall has initiated a two pronged attack. Firstly, this year all street parades have had to register, so that City Hall knows where and when to place chemical toilets. Secondly, severe fines and even prison terms have been threatened for anyone caught urinating on the street.There are plans to erect public urinals in Rio on a permanent basis to prevent the problem in general, but this can´t be done in time for carnival which starts the day after tomorrow. Instead they are installing police lookouts on hydraulic lifts, to spot offenders - this may work as a deterrent.
Its may take a bit of time to change the behaviour of the average Carioca male though. I watched a technical rehearsal of one of the samba schools in the Sambodromo. The bateria completed their warm - up and stopped for a bit, and many men ran to the back to relieve themselves. They all ran straight past the line of empty chemical toilets, and used the wall instead.
