Osaka has received 560m yen (£2.7m) worth of gold bars from an anonymous donor and a request for a specific use: to repair the Japanese city’s dilapidated water pipes.
The gold bars, weighing a total of 21kg (46lb), were given to the Osaka City Waterworks Bureau in November by a donor who wanted to help improve aging water pipes, the mayor, Hideyuki Yokoyama, told reporters on Thursday.
“It’s a staggering amount and I’m speechless,” Yokoyama said. “Fixing aging water pipes requires a huge investment, and I can’t thank you enough for the donation.”
The mayor said Japan’s third-largest city – with a population of 2.8 million – would respect donors’ wishes and use the gift to improve waterworks projects.
Most of Japan’s major public infrastructure was built during a period of rapid postwar economic growth, but urban development in Osaka, a regional commercial hub, began much earlier and its water pipes and other infrastructure are aging prematurely, said Eiji Kotani, the city’s waterworks official.
Osaka needs to rehabilitate 160 miles (260 km) of water pipes, he said. Kotani said it would cost about ¥500m to rehabilitate the 1.2-mile segment.
In the fiscal year ending March 2025, 92 cases of water pipe leaks under city roads were reported in Osaka, Kotani said.
Concerns about the safety of Japan’s waterworks systems grew after a truck fell into a sinkhole last year, killing the driver. It is linked to a damaged sewer in Saitama, north of Tokyo.
