TOKYO, Japan: An nameless donor gifted gold bars to the Osaka City Waterworks Bureau price 560 million yen (US$3.6 million) and advised them to repair town’s dilapidated water pipes.
Mayor Hideyuki Yokoyama advised reporters this week that the gold bars weighed 21 kilograms (46 kilos).
The mayor stated his metropolis would respect the donor’s needs and use the reward to enhance waterworks initiatives.
Worries in regards to the security of Osaka’s water techniques elevated after an enormous sinkhole swallowed a truck and killed the motive force final 12 months. The incident was linked to a damaged sewer pipe in Saitama, north of Tokyo.
In the fiscal 12 months ending in March 2025, Osaka recorded 92 water pipe leaks underneath metropolis roads, in keeping with town’s waterworks official Eiji Kotani on February 20.
Osaka has a inhabitants of two.8 million and is Japan’s third-largest metropolis. It serves as the primary metropolis in western Japan.
Most of Japan’s main public infrastructure was constructed in the course of the nation’s quick financial progress after World War II.
Kotani stated Osaka started growing sooner than many different cities as a result of it’s a main enterprise heart. As a consequence, its water pipes and different techniques are additionally growing old sooner.
He stated Osaka wants to switch 259 kilometers (160 miles) of water pipes. Replacing only a two-kilometer (1.2-mile) part would value about 500 million yen (round $3.2 million).