YASHIO, Japan: Emergency workers in Japan began building a ramp Friday to try and reach a 74-year-old truck driver who has not been heard from since his vehicle was swallowed by a sinkhole this week.
The cavity has expanded to 40 meters (130 feet) across, almost the length of an Olympic swimming pool, since opening up in a city just north of Tokyo on Tuesday morning, officials said.
The growing hole could be the result of corroded sewage pipes, according to authorities in Yashio.
“It is an extremely dangerous condition,” local fire chief Tetsuji Sato told reporters on Thursday at the traffic intersection where dozens of rescuers have been working around the clock.
“We are planning to construct a slope (to access the hole) from a safer spot so that we will be able to send heavy equipment,” he said.
He added that groundwater was leaking inside and that the hole was “continuing to cave in.”
No communication has been had with the driver since around midday Tuesday, with soil and other debris now covering the cabin of his lorry in Yashio.
The punctured pipes “potentially allowed the surrounding soil to flow in and the space under the ground to hollow out,” Daisuke Tsutsui, a Saitama prefectural official, said on Thursday.
Authorities hoped to complete the 30-meter slope on Friday, but a local official said it may take several days.
The operation has been aggravated by the inner walls of the hole — now around 10 meters (30 feet) deep — continuing to erode, preventing rescue workers from staying inside it for long.
Initially, the hole was around five meters in diameter but it has since combined with a much larger cavity that opened during the rescue operation on Tuesday night.
As the sinkhole has expanded, heavy chunks of asphalt have occasionally fallen in, preventing rescue workers from going near the chasm.
This has also made it dangerous to place heavy machinery nearby.
The 1.2 million people living in the area have been asked to cut back on showers and laundry to prevent leaking sewage from making the operation even more difficult.
“Using toilets is difficult to refrain from, but we are asking to use less water as much as possible,” an official said.
Some sewage water in the area was collected and released to a nearby river to reduce the runoff into the hole.
“It feels rather abnormal that the search is taking this long. I wonder if he could’ve been saved much sooner,” Takuya Koroku, a local factory worker, said on Thursday.
“I’m scared to go nearby,” the 51-year-old added.
Japan sinkhole grows to almost Olympic pool length
https://arab.news/2yr9m
Japan sinkhole grows to almost Olympic pool length
- The growing hole could be the result of corroded sewage pipes, according to authorities in Yashio
- Initially, the hole was around five meters in diameter but it has since combined with a much larger cavity
Sweden plans to tighten rules for gaining citizenship
- The country has for years struggled to integrate migrants, with many not learning the language and living in disadvantaged areas with higher crime and jobless rates
STOCKHOLM: Sweden said Monday it planned to tighten rules to acquire citizenship, introducing “honest living” and financial requirements, a language and general knowledge test and raising the residency requirement from five to eight years.
If approved by parliament, the new rules would enter into force on June 6, Sweden’s national holiday, and would apply even to applications already being processed.
Migration Minister Johan Forssell, whose right-wing minority government holds a majority with the backing of the far-right Sweden Democrats, told reporters it was currently too easy to acquire Swedish citizenship.
“Citizenship needs to mean more than it does today,” he said.
“Pride is something you feel when you’ve worked hard at something. But working hard is not something that has characterised citizenship.
“It has been possible to become a citizen after five years without knowing a single word of Swedish, without knowing anything about our Swedish society, without having any own income.”
Referring to a case that recently made headlines, he said: “You can even become one while you’re sitting in custody accused of murder.
“This obviously sends completely wrong signals, both to those who do right by themselves and those who are already citizens.”
Following a large influx of migrants to Sweden during the 2015 migrant crisis, successive left- and right-wing governments have tightened asylum and migration rules.
The country has for years struggled to integrate migrants, with many not learning the language and living in disadvantaged areas with higher crime and jobless rates.
Under the new rules, those who have criminal records — in their home country or in Sweden — and who have served their sentence would have to wait up to 17 years before being allowed to apply for citizenship, up from the current 10 years.
In addition, those deemed to not adhere to “honest living” requirements would not be granted citizenship.
That could include racking up mountains of debt, being served restraining orders or even having a drug addiction.
Applicants would also have to have a monthly pre-tax income of 20,000 kronor ($2,225), excluding pensioners and students.
The citizenship tests would be similar to those used in neighboring Denmark and the United States, the government said, with the first tests due to be held in August.
