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The Yomiuri Shimbun Work is conducted to create a slope at a sinkhole site in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, on Monday afternoon.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
16:45 JST, February 4, 2025
A second slope is being created in efforts to rescue a truck driver trapped in a sinkhole at an intersection in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture. However, the level of water that has accumulated inside the hole is still high, hampering the operation.
Tuesday marked one week since the sinkhole opened on the prefectural road and a truck plunged into it.
The first slope to allow heavy machinery to enter the hole was completed Saturday morning, but water that appeared to be sewage gushed out near the end of the slope, causing the fire department to suspend the rescue operation. A sewer pipe is believed to have become blocked, causing a backflow.
The prefectural government then began expanding the first slope to allow machinery to approach the rescue site while avoiding the gushing spot. It also began creating the second slope from a different direction on Monday. The second one is expected to reach a point closer to where the truck fell, the prefecture said.
Since the water level must be lowered to investigate the sewage pipes, the prefecture requested residents of 12 municipalities upstream to use water “as little as possible” between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Tuesday. A lower volume of sewage flowing into the pipes would mean a lower volume of water flowing into the sinkhole.
“It is extremely regrettable that the rescue operation has taken a week,” Gov. Motohiro Ono said at the prefecture’s crisis response meeting Monday, while also expressing all-out support for the rescue efforts.
Ono asked for residents’ cooperation and said, “We will investigate how much the water level will fall and whether it is possible to check [the inside of the sewer pipes] with a drone.”
Impact of water saving
One week on, the incident has an impact on local households and businesses.
To minimize the flow of sewage into the damaged sewer pipes in Yashio, the prefecture has asked the 1.2 million people of the 12 municipalities upstream to reduce wastewater discharge, such as by cutting back on laundry and baths.
An 80-year-old woman who lives near the sinkhole site has not discharged any bath water but has kept reusing it by reheating. “It’s been almost a week, and I’m starting to feel the inconvenience, but seeing people working hard on the rescue operation, I want to do my best to cooperate,” she said.
The incident also has an impact on public facilities. In Hasuda, the city’s elderly welfare center has suspended its bathing facility since Jan. 29, the day after the accident. Many people look forward to bathing there, and the facility has received phone calls every day that ask if the bath has reopened.
“Many people were surprised to learn that the accident in the distant city of Yashio would have an impact on us,” the center’s director said. “I’m worried about whether everyone who used to come here is doing well.”
A food maker’s factory in Kasukabe reviewed its production schedule after the accident. The factory uses a large quantity of water to clean tanks and pumps on the production lines whenever it switches from manufacturing one product to another product. The factory aims to reduce discharge by cutting the number of times the products to be manufactured are changed.
“We make essential goods for daily life. So, we want to reduce water discharge as much as possible while fulfilling our responsibility as a supplier,” a factory manager said.
