Damage and Provision of Aid of Water Supply in Disaster-hit Areas, the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami By Research and Publication Department, JAPAN WATER RESEARCH CENTER () Updated Wednesday March 23, 13:00 JST For the Emergency Water Supply from the Whole country to the Disaster-hit Areas The magnitude 9.0 the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on Friday March 11, 2011. The earthquake triggered extremely destructive tsunami waves of up to 33 ft that struck Japan minutes after the quake, in some cases traveling up to 6 mile inland, with smaller waves reaching many other countries after several hours. Tsunami warnings were issued and evacuations ordered along Japan s Pacific coast and at least 20 other countries, including the entire Pacific coast of North America and South America. The earthquake and tsunami caused extensive and the significant destruction of buildings, infrastructure, and human property in the affected Tohoku to Kanto area of Japan including heavy damage of drinking water facilities, such as the water treatment plants and the networks of distribution pipelines as well as service water installation. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has officially confirmed the number of households affected is not less than 880,000 without water from drinking water utilities as of 13:00 JST of 21 Monday March 2011. The details are shown of Table 1.
Table 1 Water Supply s Disruption Conditions by Prefectures in Japan Name of Prefecture Aomori Water Supply s Disruption Condition 15 households Iwate 50,000 Miyagi 460,000 Fukushima 120,000 Akita Yamagata 1,400 44 Ibaragi 180,000 Tochigi 1,600 Gunma Saitama Chiba 60,000 Niigata 1,100 Nagano 800 Gifu 0 (restored) Hokkaido 0 (restored) Tokyo Kanagawa Yamanashi Shizuoka Note: as of 13:00 JST of 21 Monday March 2011 Major initial response for water supply in the affected areas started from March 12 that is within 24-hour, a lot of people related to water services including the MHLW, the Japan Water Works Association (JWWA), and the water utilities in nationwide various prefectures from north to south has been providing assistance to the affected areas by dispatching emergency rescue teams of water supply with water trucks and machinery, to actively progress the emergency water supply to the stricken areas including survey for restoration. For the emergency rescue team dispatched from the water utility as mentioned earlier, they have been taken water truck, machineries and some equipment etc. with them for the stricken areas, such as prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, Chiba, Tochigi and Ibaragi (see Table 2 and Table 3). After arriving at the above prefecture, they started to carry out supply water on the emergency water supply for citizens in the affected areas immediately that is without water supply due to out of service by power failure or damage to water supply facilities. They will also start the
suspension survey of the water supply after they have gotten successfully through one big part of supply water for emergency water supply including carrying out about the master plan of the emergency restoration plan, if they can do it. The number of emergency water truck is 238 in the affected Tohoku and Kanto area, from Sapporo City of Hokkaido in the north of Japan to Naha City of the south of Japan that is dispatching from the number of 184 water works utilities (as of 14 March 2011 7:00 JST). Table 2 Dispatched Conditions of the Emergency Water Supply Truck by Water Works Utilities (an excerpt from the report of JWWA) Prefecture s Name City Dispatched Date Number of Water Truck Response Prefectures Hokkaido Sapporo 3/12 or 3/13 1 Miyagi Tokyo Tokyo 3/12 5 Miyagi Kanagawa Yokohama 3/12 4 Chiba, Fukushima Kawasaki 3/12 or 3/13 2 Fukushima, Chiba Kanagawa 3/12 or 3/13 2 Tochigi Saitama Saitama 3/12, 13 3 Tochigi Fukushima Aichi Nagoya 3/12 or 3/13 3 Miyagi Nagano Nagano 3/12 or 3/13 2 Iwate Niigata Niigata 3/12 or 3/13 4 Miyagi Osaka Osaka 3/12 or 3/13 3 Ibaragi 3/12 or 3/13 3 Miyagi Sakai 3/12 or 3/13 4 Ibaragi Hyogo Kobe 3/12 or 3/13 4 Chiba Kyoto Kyoto 3/12 or 3/13 2 Ibaragi Hiroshima Hiroshima 3/12 or 3/13 2 Ibaragi Kagawa Takamatsu unknown 2 Miyagi Ehime Matsuyama 3/14 2 Fukushima Fukuoka Fukuoka unknown 3 Miyagi Ditto Kita-kyushu 3/12 2 Ibaragi Kumamoto Kumamoto 3/12 or 3/13 2 Miyagi Okinawa Naha 3/12 or 3/13 2 Miyagi Note: Water truck is 2-m 3 and 4-m 3 as a volume.
System of Countermeasures in Emergency such as Earthquakes in Japan When the large-scale earthquake occurred, the demand concerning "Establishment of a large area system of the disaster measures assistance" was submitted from the business unit of the whole country to the country in Japan for the establishment of the system that MHLW, each prefecture government, and JWWA combined, and a smoother, prompter assistance activity is enforceable. Domestic parties concerned did the examination repeatedly from such details centering on JWWA, and "Guidance for the emergency such as earthquakes" was published in December, 2008.
MHLW, Health Service Bureau, Water Supply Division Sharing of Information Prefecture Government Health related office Information Report (It depends on the Clerical work report from MHLW on June 19, 2007) JWWA Water Utilities of Regional Branch and Prefectural Branch Director of Prefectural Branches of Regional Branches etc. Director of Damaged Regional Branch of JWWA (Water Utility of information liaison and coordination) Water Utilities of Regional Branch and Prefectural Branch Director of Damaged Prefectural Branch of JWWA etc. (Water Utility of information liaison and coordination) Damaged Water Utility Disaster Occurred Dispatching of Survey Team Ahead Sharing of Information Other Directors of Regional Branch of JWWA Directors of 46 Prefectural Branches of 7 Regional Branches of JWWA etc. Relavant Ministries (Ministry of International and Communications etc.) Relavant Water Organizations (Federation of Water Industries Inc.) Legend Information Report Flow of Survey Team Ahead Figure 1 Flowchart of the Request of Assistant for Emergency, such as Earthquake (Source: Guideline for the Emergency, such as Earthquake by JWWA, Dec. 2008)
Table 3 List of Materials and Machinery for Emergency Water Supply Classification Vehicles Safety Equipment Water Supply Equipment Container of Water Supply Others Name of Material and Machinery Water Truck Truck Car for Public Relations Lighting Equipment Engine Pump Submerged Pump Cloth Hose Fuel Tank Temporary Water Service Tap Set Small Water Supply Tank or Temporary Water Tank Water Tank Poly-tank Plastic Bag Continuity Production Machine of Water Bug Potable Residual Chlorine Checker Megaphone Mobile Phone Note Pressure type is better. Engine type is better. As Truck use Less than 10L Less than 6L Source: Guideline for the Emergency, such as Earthquake by JWWA, Dec. 2008
Table 4 Emergency Water Supply by various Supporting Organizations Supporting Organization Emergency Water Supply Water Utility Direct water supply for consumers Through clear water reservoir and Water treatment plant Supply water by delivery Supply water from emergency water supply station Supply water for important facilities, such as hospitals for emergency use Ground Self-Defense Force Supply water of Carrying by Water Truck Air Self-Defense Force or Truck Supply station from emergency water Supply station Marine Self-Defense Forces Pour water into the water truck by Japan Coast Guard water ship Direct supply water to citizen Transportation Company Supply water a large volume necessary to emergency water supply station and hospital The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Supply water of transportation by Transport Water truck and truck Local Government Private Enterprise(except Transportation Company) Volunteer Assistance of supply water for transportation or supply water at supply water station Source: Guideline for the Emergency, such as Earthquake by JWWA, Dec. 2008
Purification plant Dam City Hall/ Ward Hall Emergency water supply tap Emergency Drinking water receiving tank Fukuoka Water distribution station Izumi-ku Aoba-ku Nkahara Kunimi Miyagino-ku Ota-ku Moniwa Wakabayashi-ku Waterworks Bureau office building Figure 2 Emergency Water Supply Stations of Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture (As of March 2010, 65 facilities) (Source: Homepage of Sendai Municipal Water Works Bureau) Necessity of Other Countermeasures against Production Stoppage of Chemicals for Water Treatment The Great East Japan Earthquake influences the main hypochlorite soda manufacturing factory in the vicinity of the Kanto region, and the lack of sodium hypochlorite is feared after the earthquake struck as well as the stoppage in production by the rolling blackout by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). MHLW is strongly to advise their water utilities to consider the proper management of the quantity consumed to the water utilities not to be struck, and attempting mutual flexibility between water utilities.