Rio scrambles to fix Olympic Village

Australia discovers blocked toilets, leaky pipes

The official opening of the Olympic Village in Rio turned to fiasco Sunday with the discovery of blocked toilets and leaky pipes, prompting Australia to call the facility “not safe or ready.”

Even Brazilian athletes who were meant to have started taking up lodgings in the brandnew complex from Sunday were being kept in hotels instead.

Britain’s delegation said it, too, had encountered some “maintenance difficulties,” but added it was staying in the Village as planned.

Rio’s Olympic organizers said such teething problems plagued all Olympic Games. They promised that “adjustments” were being made to resolve the problems.

The Olympic Games, the first to be held in South America, are to open on August 5, less than two weeks away. The lack of preparedness in the Olympic Village was another embarrassing blow for host Brazil, which is struggling to show all will be well with the Olympiad.

It is already facing low ticket sales, general public apathy amid a deep recession, fears over the Zika virus, and a spike in street crime as police complain of lack of resources.

Australia’s delegation highlighted the poor state of the Village, 31- building complex located in the Barra da Tijuca district in the west of Rio de Janeiro designed to house more than 18,000 athletes and coaching staff over the coming weeks.

“Problems include blocked toilets, leaking pipes, exposed wiring, darkened stairwells where no lighting has been installed and dirty floors in need of a massive clean,” the head of the Australian team, Kitty Chiller, said in a statement.

During a test involving taps and toilets being turned on in apartments on several floors, “water came down walls, there was a strong smell of gas in some apartments and there was ‘ shorting’ in the electrical wiring.” Chiller later told reporters, “This is my fifth Olym- pic Games, I have never experienced a Village in this lack of state of readiness at this point in time.”

She said that, “in our mind, our building is not habitable” and the Australian team would stay on in nearby hotels.

But she said a team of plumbers was already at work to fix the problems, and “I am reasonably confident that we will be able to enter the Village on Wednesday.”