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”.
Australia had been due to move into the Village on 21 July 21 but have instead been living in nearby hotels. Chiller said that for those coming in the next three days alternative accommodation has been arranged. Extra maintenance staff and more than 1,000 cleaners have been engaged to help fix the problems and clean the village.
“We’re having plumbing problems, we’ve got leaking pipes,” added Mike Tancred, the spokesman for the Australia team. “We’ve got electrical problems. We’ve got cleaning problems. We’ve got lighting problems in some of the stairwells. We did a stress test on Saturday, turned on the taps and flushed the toilets, and water came flooding down the walls.”
Chiller added: “There was a strong smell of gas in some apartments and there was ‘shorting’ in the electrical wiring. We have been living in nearby hotels because the village is simply not safe or ready.”
She said teams from Britain and New Zealand had similar problems, which have been going on for at least a week. Chiller said the IOC will ask local organisers to do stress tests “throughout the Olympic Village”, a process that could force major delays and require people living there now to leave.
The 31-building compound contains tennis courts, football pitches, seven swimming pools, with mountains and the sea as a backdrop, topped off by a huge dining-kitchen compound that is as big as three football fields.
The 3,600 apartments are to be sold after the Olympics, with some prices reaching $700,000 (£533,000). The development cost was about $1.5bn (£1.14bn) and was built by the Brazilian billionaire Carlos Carvalho. “From the exterior it looks like the Hilton hotel,” Tancred added. “But inside it’s not finished.”
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