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Article:
Japanese School Receives $27,000 Water Bill
A school in Japan has received a water bill of 3.5 million yen — or about $27,000 — after a teacher left a tap running for more than two months.
The tap was left running for the swimming pool at Mabori Junior High School in the city of Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture, from late June to early September 2021, including days during summer vacation when the pool was closed.
The teacher, whose job included pool maintenance, believed that constantly adding fresh water to the pool would keep students safe from COVID-19.
Water in pools is usually kept safe and clean by using chlorine and filters.
But as Akira Kojiri, a Yokosuka City Board of Education official, told AFP, the teacher mistakenly thought that fresh water would make the pool cleaner and help stop coronavirus infections.
Other staff members would sometimes see that the tap was running and turn it off, but the teacher would turn it back on.
Kojiri said that, because of this, about 4 million liters of water were wasted in just over two months — enough water to fill the pool 11 times.
The city of Yokosuka has said that the teacher, together with the school's principal and vice principal, must pay half of the water bill.
The board of education has also apologized to the city for the problems it caused.
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