‘Village repairs to be done this week’

Australians ready to move

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 26, (Agencies): Blocked toilets, dangerous wiring and other problems in Rio’s Olympic Village will be resolved by the end of the week, Brazilian organizers said Monday as new reports of glitches emerged.

A day after the Australian Olympic delegation refused to move into the apartment complex in western Rio, Brazilian organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada promised a solution.

“We have 630 men working to fix the problems at the Olympic Village,” Andrada said in comments tweeted by the government’s Olympic account.

“They should complete the impeccable handover of the Village by the end of the week, probably by Thursday,” he said.

This indicated a longer timetable than suggested by the honorary mayor of the Village, former Brazilian Olympian Janeth Arcain, who said Sunday that the work would take only 48 hours.

However, the Australian team, which has made the most high-profile complaints, struck an optimistic note, noting “fantastic” progress and saying that athletes should be able to move in on Wednesday.

Delays often occur in the final run-up to staging the Olympics, but Brazilian organizers have been embarrassed by a barrage of multiple problems as they prepare for South America’s first Games.

Battered by bad news over the Zika virus, heavy pollution in the Olympic sailing and rowing areas and rampant armed crime across Rio, Mayor Eduardo Paes has frequently found himself on the defensive.

Paes reacted to the Australian complaints on Sunday by quipping that he should perhaps put “a kangaroo in front of their building to make them feel at home.”

Earlier this month, he responded to one voter critical of Rio’s transformation by telling him to “move.”

Australia said Sunday it would delay taking up residence in the Village, a development of 31 new buildings next to the Olympic Park that will house some 18,000 athletes and other team members during the Games starting Aug 5.

“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.

Meanwhile, the Olympic team of Belarus has branded the athletes’ village in Rio de Janeiro unsanitary, a day after Australia refused to check its athletes in over health concerns.

It has complained about having no hot water, only sometimes cold water, and a failing sewage system.