Water use and the World Cup

It seems that Tokyo's plumbing system has felt the strain of recent World Cup competition. 

To quote an article from Japan Times:

"During their team’s 2-1 World Cup win over Colombia, Japan’s armchair soccer fans risked triggering a plumbing disaster of biblical proportions when millions rushed to the toilet at halftime.  It was a case of squeaky bum time when fans finally tore themselves away from the TV last week after a nail-biting first 45 minutes, with water use jumping 24 percent in Tokyo during the break, the city’s waterworks bureau said Friday."

Wonder if one could calibrate better viewer data from flushing than from traditional Neilson ratings (or whatever we're using these days).  The latter simply measures if the TV is on, not if anyone is watching, or how many are watching, and certainly not the viewer's enthusiasm - whether he is (or they are)  "glued to the screen".

I particularly enjoyed the evocative use of language further down in the article:

"Flushed with joy after watching Yuya Osako bag a second-half winner for Japan against 10-man Colombia in Russia on Tuesday, jubilant fans made another dash for the loo at the final whistle, causing an additional 50 percent spike in water use."

One of the board members of my commercial janitorial firm argues that we could track economic trends via janitorial service - measure the number of 44-gallon trash bins one gets every night out of a given facility.  Or out of a variety of facilities.  The more trash, the more workers (and the more work each is producing).  Less trash ought equate to a slowing economy.  And, the results would be in close to real time - we could report yesterday's economic activity this morning.  No waiting for folks to file unemployment claims, and for various agencies to tabulate the results.

Somehow, a "Garbage based economic indicator" seems highly appropriate.  Garbage in, garbage out.

Comments

[Janet Baker]

you should ask the Japanese for precise figures about this. They tend to keep meticulous records of everything. Inquiring minds also would want to know if the toilets mentioned were state-of-the-art Toto toilets, (best in the world) or just average toilets. possibly a difference in the amount of water each flush would have involved.

[Bob Croft]

Cogent thoughts - thanks!