A huge water pipe emerged from the ground on a street in Japan

The pipe emerged from the ground during the early morning. Around 6:50, local police received an alert from neighbors, reporting pieces of debris and concrete scattered in the streets around Hankyu Osaka-Umeda station, a relatively central area of ​​the third largest city in the country.

The pipe appeared under a section of the highway, which had to be closed to traffic and forced an operation to take it back underground. It was a pipe of about 27 meters long and 3.5 meters in diameteras noted by Japan Times.

It had been buried as part of work to connect an existing sewer line with a storage conduit designed to contain excess rainwater during heavy rainfall. The pipe was used as a retaining structure to prevent the excavated earth from collapsing.

To lower it again, the officers carried out an operation to fill the master pipe with water and make it descend slowly. The reasons why it emerged in the first instance have not yet been determined.

Osaka’s plumbing system has serious problems that has been dragging on for years due to the aging of the post-war infrastructure that the city built. By 2025, some 92 cases of infrastructure problems and leaks had been detected, according to a note from The Guardian that cited Eiji Kotani, responsible for the city’s water supply.

It is estimated that they need to renew more than 260 kilometers of pipelines, at a value of almost 1.5 million dollars per kilometer. For this reason, the city had been in the news at the end of last November, when an anonymous donor delivered about 21 kilos of gold barswith the aim of using them to renew the plumbing system.

The gift, which is valued at almost 3.5 million dollarswas handed over to the Osaka City Water Office, as reported by the mayor, Hideyuki Yokoyama, to the press in February. “It’s an astonishing amount and I’m speechless. Solving aging water pipes requires a huge investment, and I can’t thank you enough for this donation,” said a surprised Yokohama.

It is in that context that the rebel pipe came to the surface this week. Hiroaki Miyazaki, head of the city’s sewage department, apologized for the inconvenience, saying that the closure of streets by the pipe had caused major traffic jams and great inconvenience to residents.’

The deadlines to reestablish normal order in the neighborhood were not completely defined since they had to first guarantee the stability of the soil.

Ryozo Kawakita, a 73-year-old resident, complained to the Japan Times about the problems it caused him. Due to the closure of the streets, he was unable to take the car he works with to leave his house. “I can’t believe it,” he protested. It is, to say the least, a difficult explanation to use at work: a giant pipe appeared out of nowhere at the door of the house.