We regret to announce that the country of Brazil is currently experiencing a prolonged drought – the worst that they have had in over 20 years – and that this drought has adversely affected water levels at the 2014 R4 World Rafting Championships venue. Furthermore, the drought is not expected to break before the start of the event.

For some time, the IRF has been aware that the drought could affect the R4 WRC, and we asked our host, the CBCa (Confederação Brasileira de Canoagem), to resolve this concern before we issued final approval of their bid.

In September 2013, meetings were held in Brazil with CBCa officials, and follow-up email correspondence was exchanged. The result was that the CBCa assured the IRF that the Brazilian government would guarantee the installation of massive water pumps at the venue so that it would not be effected by the drought. Afterwards, the CBCa selected dates for the WRC and assured the IRF that the pumps would be operational several months in advance of these dates. With these critical promises, the BOD accepted the venue and published the proposed dates.

A few days ago (11/04/2014), CBCa President João Tomasini contacted the IRF President and informed him that the Brazilian government has broken their promise due to a delay in funding approval, and that the pump installation has been delayed. Regrettably, the revised installation schedule means that the venue WILL NOT be available for the WRC until after 15 October. Therefore the WRC CANNOT be held as currently planned.

The full IRF BOD was immediately informed, and after discussion, has decided that the best option at this time is to delay the WRC until water at the venue is restored.

Our President has asked the CBCa President to secure a written guarantee from the Brazilian government that the pumps WILL be operational by October 15. Until we receive a written guarantee, we do not yet have the confidence to fully reschedule the event for late October. We are looking into alternative locations in case we fail to get the guarantee timeously, but we sincerely hope it does not come to that.

As we have only received this information in the last few days and have been waiting for additional clarifications from Brazil, we ask for your patience as we try and rescue our WRC.

Thanks
IRF BOD