Japanese school lands in hot water over Covid fantasy

A SCHOOL in Japan has been handed a water bill for more than £21,000 after a teacher left a tap running into a swimming pool for months in the hope that it would limit coronavirus infections.

The teacher believed that a constant flow of water into the pool would help to keep children safe from coronavirus.

The tap was left running at the school, in Kanagawa prefecture, from late June to early September last year, according to media reports.

Some members of staff apparently tried to turn it off, as the pool’s water quality is managed via filtration and chlorination; but the teacher is believed to have turned the tap back on again.

“The teacher somehow got the wrong idea that pouring new water in would also do the trick and even help prevent Covid,” Akira Kojiri, a local education board official, told AFP.

An estimated 4,000 tonnes of excess water – enough to fill up the pool at least 11 times – was wasted.

The alarm was raised when the school received a water bill for 3.5million yen (£21,515).

Local health authorities have apologised to residents and requested that the teacher, who has not been named, and two supervising members of staff pay for half of the bill.