Kiyosato Elementary School in Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture is looking for help paying its overwhelming water bill this summer.
A 30 year old teacher at the school, thinking ahead to the coming opening of the pool, left a valve open when filling the pool leaving it to overflow for 13 days and waste a total of 1,500,000 yen (over US$16,000) worth of water.
School officials say the water flowed through the valve and into a nearby river. The problem was notices when a teacher at the school noticed exorbitant amount of water use registered on the water meter.
City officials say that this is not something they can use tax payer money to pay for, and so school officials will have to ask for donations and voluntary support in order to pay the bill.