Photo/Illutration The sinkhole at 3:56 p.m. on Feb. 2, five days after the road collapse in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture (Naoko Kawamura)

YASHIO, Saitama Prefecture--Residents and businesses in eastern Saitama Prefecture were again asked to make sacrifices concerning water use as the rescue operation for a trucker buried in a sinkhole continues facing hurdles.

The biggest problem for rescue workers is the constant flow of water that keeps filling the hole and has made the surrounding ground unstable, raising the risk of additional cave-ins at the intersection.

Firefighters have built a ramp that leads into the sinkhole. But rescue teams were unable to enter the hole on Feb. 2 to rescue the truck driver or repair the ruptured and leaking sewage pipe that is believed to have caused the sinkhole.

The Saitama prefectural government on Feb. 2 called on more than 1 million residents in the prefecture to refrain from draining or flushing sewage water, the sixth daily request since the truck and its driver in his 70s fell into the sinkhole on the morning of Jan. 28.

“It is highly likely that more time will be needed for rescue and restoration,” Saitama Governor Motohiro Ono said at a prefectural government meeting on the evening of Feb. 2. “Thanks to the cooperation of 1.2 million residents and businesses in 12 cities and towns, the sewage inflow level is decreasing, but the problem has not yet been resolved.”

Ono had said earlier that the request to limit water use could be lifted after the ruptured pipe is repaired.

However, emptying the hole is proving difficult. The truck cabin was buried under soil and sand on Feb. 2 and could not be seen with the naked eye.

RESIDENTS COOPERATE

Heavy machinery, including excavators and trucks, have been scooping up and taking away earth and sand from the sinkhole on the newly built ramp since the morning of Feb. 2. They have also been placing sandbags in the area to slow the water inflow.

But with light rain falling intermittently, sewage and groundwater kept flowing in and accumulating inside the hole.

The prefecture and the fire department plan to lower the water level using drainage pump vehicles and to extend the ramp.

The rupture in the sewer pipe is located about 10 meters deep at a key point of the 120-kilometer-long pipe that connects the 12 cities and towns in eastern Saitama Prefecture.

When the sewage flow increases, water overflows from the top of the broken pipe.

The entire sewage system is not out of service, and toilets and baths still work in the 12 cities and towns.

Cooperation from residents and businesses has helped to reduce the overflow from the pipe.

A 46-year-old employee at Popeye Ramen, a Chinese restaurant in Saitama city’s Iwatsuki Ward, said she has been washing dishes less frequently and cleaning them in batches as much as possible.

A public bathhouse in the same ward has shortened its opening hours by 90 minutes since Jan. 29.

“The number of customers will decrease, but we want to provide at least the minimum level of cooperation,” said a woman in her 70s who runs the bathhouse.

A company worker in his 50s living in Soka, Saitama Prefecture, did not take a bath at home on Jan. 28 or 29. He and his family went to a bathing facility in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward instead.

Since the accident, the family has been using paper plates and cups to reduce the amount of tableware to wash.

“We want to cooperate with the rescue efforts as much as we can, but we are worried about how long we will be able to continue this lifestyle,” he said.

(This article was written by Naoto Inagaki and Satoru Ito.)

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