Australians stay away from Olympic Village due to blocked toilets, exposed wiring

The Australian team will not move into the Olympic Village for next month's Rio Games because of problems including "blocked toilets, leaking pipes and exposed wiring", the head of the country's delegation Kitty Chiller said on Sunday.

Chiller, who will reassess the situation later on Sunday, said she had raised concerns on a daily basis with the organisers and the International Olympic Committee, and was "pushing hard for a solution".

Extra maintenance staff and more than 1,000 cleaners have been engaged to fix the problems and clean the Village, Chiller said, but the faults, particularly the plumbing issues, have not been resolved.

Australia had been due to move into the Village on July 21 but have instead been living in nearby hotels.

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Australia team won't move into Olympic Village

Chiller said Australian team staff are continuing to set up as best they can for the arrival of athletes and that for those coming in the next three days alternative accommodation has been arranged.

"For over a week now AOC staff have been working long hours to get our section of the village ready for our athletes," Chiller said in a statement.

"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.

"In operations areas water has come through the ceiling resulting in large puddles on the floor around cabling and wiring.

"We decided to do a 'stress test' where taps and toilets were simultaneously turned on in apartments on several floors to see if the system could cope once the athletes are in-house.

"The system failed. Water came down walls, there was a strong smell of gas in some apartments and there was shorting in the electrical wiring."

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