Around 1.2 million people in Japan have been asked to stop doing laundry and taking showers as rescuers race against time to save a truck driver trapped in a sinkhole. The 74-year-old has been trapped since the sinkhole swallowed his truck at a busy intersection in Yashio, north of Tokyo, on Tuesday, the Guardian reports. Heavy equipment can't get near the widening sinkhole, which has grown to more than 150 feet across, because of the risk of more collapses, so rescuers are building a ramp, reports the Telegraph.
Authorities believe the sinkhole was caused by a corroded sewer pipe. People in a dozen cities and towns near the site have been asked to cut water usage to keep wastewater out of the system and reduce the risk of more collapses at the site. "Using toilets is difficult to refrain from, but we are asking (people) to use less water as much as possible," a local official says. The driver spoke to rescuers after the sinkhole swallowed his truck Tuesday morning but he hasn't been heard from since around noon that day, the Guardian reports.
Experts say the Yashio sinkhole should serve as a warning about Japan's aging water infrastructure, the Japan Times reports. The sewer pipe, which has a diameter of around 15 feet, was built in 1983. Sewer pipes in Japan are built to last 50 years but more than 7% of piping is older than that, authorities say. "Such big drainage pipes are all around the country, and most cities in Japan are built on soft ground," says Shinya Inazumi, a professor of civil engineering at Tokyo's Shibaura Institute of Technology. "In that sense, an accident like this could happen anywhere." (More sinkhole stories.)
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