If you're looking up or sideways, you'd better consider looking down when in Rio de Janeiro. It's a war of sorts--against citizens and tourists. Don't gaze too long at that beach, just get there--or the manhole underneath you might explode in the interim. It may sound funny but 10 this month have blown, the holes dubbed "veritable minefields". Rio's state prosecutor says 4,000 are about to blow.
Yet another manhole has exploded, this time in Botafogo -- where two people, a window and a motorcycle got slammed by the explosion. For those who think it sounds bizarre or an unlikely occurrence, the strange part is that it's becoming quite common. The Botafogo explosion marks the tenth, yes 10, to explode just this month in July 2011. Try 60 manholes that have exploded into the Rio skies since 2010. Literally dozens of people have been injured by the exploding manholes, and two U.S. tourists were hit in Copacabana.
So why do manholes in Rio de Janeiro suck? An interesting question that remains to be answered, except that maybe less money is going into their care than the thousands of dollars in damages caused by the explosions. They're all owned by Rio de Janeiro's electricity company, appropriately dubbed 'Light' -- for what it should be responsible for. At this point, 'Lightning' might be more accurate.
The Rio de Janeiro Tramway, Light and Power Co. Ltd, aka 'Light', was authorized to operate in Brazil in 1905.
There's literally a spark to the whole problem: Sparks from aging transformers, inside underground junction boxes, are igniting gasses -- and, ka-boom. Light’s president Jerson Kelman says: “We are renovating the underground system, which is more than 60 years old and has visible signs of stress and aging...There’s never been this kind of investment in reforming the underground system, we have 88 million reais [US $56 million]. Cash is there, but we can not fix everything in a month.”
Or in many months, it seems.
The President of 'Light' says 130 manhole covers showed signs of exploding in April. That's what the company was admitting to. The world is still waiting on the accuracy of a company's stats when it comes to repairs. The Rio de Janeiro state public prosecutor’s office is saying that number is a bit off -- not by multiplication of 10. Try times thirty. Rio's prosecutor suggests the number of ready-to-burst manholes is more in the realm of 4,000. In fact the state prosecutor's office has sued 'Light' -- with an argument that exploding manholes have “turned the city’s [Rio de Janeiro] streets and avenues into veritable minefields.”
“The risk of unexpected lethal explosions only exists in places that are at war or where there are bomb threats,” the state claims in a legal brief. 'Light' has to pay a 100,000 reais fine [US $64,000] for every manhole explosion in the interim. But of course that's chump change compared to more than fifty million bucks -- and the interest that continues to earn. Locals have reportedly become good sports about the flying shrapnel. Of course, there's not a lot of choice when living in a simulated war zone.
Of the more humorous responses to a seriously dangerous problem, one group made manhole covers look like fizzing time bombs by sticking adhesive around the edges.
Rio de Janeiro doesn't have long to up public image. International ourists aren't going to be too thrilled about the prospect of visiting a city that has continued and unexpected explosions from below. Amazingly, Rio is slated for those 2016 Olympics. The city's also hosting the final of soccer’s World Cup in 2014, a date right around the corner for a spot that still has to renovate thousands of manholes.
People don't take too kindly to visiting a city for an event, then losing a limb.