Water tech makes a dozen dives into a storm sewer in Hainan

A repairman is being hailed for making 12 separate dives into 1.5-meters of water inside a storm sewer in Hainan to repair a burst fire hydrant, reports the People's Daily.

Due to tropical storm Talas, the southern city of Sanya in Hanian Province was hit by strong winds and heavy storms over the weekend, uprooting numerous trees.

Chen Yongguo, manager of a local water company, dives into 1.5-meter deep water in a storm swear in Sanya, Hainan province, July 16, 2017. [Photo: peopleapp.com]

Chen Yongguo, manager of a local water company, received a Sunday morning call to say that an excavator had broken a fire hydrant while attempting to clear away branches of uprooted trees.

Chen quickly realized there was only two options to shut down the fire hydrant: Turn off the main valve for the pipeline, which would have left thousands of people in the area without water; or dive below the water to cut the water to the damaged hydrant itself.

Chen Yongguo, manager of a local water company, dives into 1.5-meter deep water in a storm swear in Sanya, Hainan province, July 16, 2017. [Photo: peopleapp.com]

"The most difficult thing was that I couldn't see clearly underwater, so all I could do was to grope for the valve based on my memory," said Chen during his attempts.

After a dozen dives under the murky water, Chen was finally able to find the valve and shut it down after 7 minutes, saving the local area from being stuck without water supplies for hours, or possibly longer.