Anti-pollution agencies restore the pristine beauty of Japan

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

SHIGA (JAPAN), APRIL 2. Standing on the banks of Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan, one can breathe free. The air is good and so is the water. But it was not so till a few decades ago, when as a result of rapid industrialisation - which threw all environmental caution to the wind - the water in the lake as also almost all other water bodies in the country had turned dark and frothy.

Two major cases of mercury poisoning, one of dumping from copper mines and another of cadmium contamination - which left many suffering with serious ailments - were needed to stir the authorities to action.

Respite came in 1967 when the country enacted the Basic Law for Environmental Pollution Control to promote counter-measures against pollution. The creation of the Environment Agency in 1971 and the subsequent setting of a limit on the pollutants flowing into designated water bodies from various units led to improvement in water quality.

A multi-pronged approach was adopted to clean the water bodies of pollutants. Emphasis was laid on effluent control enforcement. By the year 1997, over 300,000 businesses and factories had been brought under by the plan. Most of these now have their own waste and water treatment plants.

Setting up of water treatment plants was taken up at various levels to prevent flow of untreated water into rivers, lakes and seas. Domestic effluent discharge was also contained by getting people to segregate food wastes, cooking oil and other wastes properly and regulating the use of detergents. Moreover, local effluent treatment facilities and recycling efforts were also encouraged at various levels.

Such has been the concern for water pollution that Japan earmarked a 24-trillion yen budget for sewerage systems in the seventh five-year plan starting 1996. Special importance was also given to preservation of drinking water sources.

Several water bodies like Biwa Lake here, which provide drinking water, have been purified through control of effluents flowing in. With the setting up of Lake Biwa museum, a large scale effort was also put into place to make people, especially children, aware of the rich aquatic life and history of the water body and thereby prompt them into conserving the lake.

While large and municipal level sewerage systems have been installed in urban areas, rural communities with populations of about 1,000 are being provided with community scale sewerage systems. And for isolated houses, special tanks are being constructed for subsequent discharge of dried waste.

Also people are being encouraged to use soap instead of detergents for controlling phosphorus flow into the water bodies. Along with nitrogen, phosphorus causes eutrophication - growth of an organism, phytoplankton, which reduces oxygen content in water.

Incidentally, this problem of eutrophication was also prevalent in Tokyo area earlier. But there too the problem has been taken care of.

Mr. Nobuyuki Imamoto of the Water Pollution Prevention Section of the Bureau of Environmental Protection, says various measures were undertaken for cleaning the water in the rivers and bays near the Capital.

Along with sewerage treatment plants, additional measures were undertaken in the form of sledging, or physical removal of waste from the bed of the water bodies.

Mr Imamoto says in Tokyo area another innovative technique was adopted for cleaning the Sumida river, which flows through the city. Just before the 1964 Olympics a channel was constructed to bring in water from nearby rivers and it helped in flushing clean the river.

For lasting results, 28 sewerage systems of over 1 million ton per day capacity have been set up for about 12 million people. As of now only about 160,000 households, spread in far off areas, are not covered by the network. But even they are being covered with single treatment septic tanks.

Right now, research is also on various aspects of water pollution. One of them is measurement of marine pollutants. According to Mr B.R. Ramaswamy, an STA Fellow at the Water Analysis Division of Hydrospheric Environmental Protection Department, Tsukuba, the use of tributyltin compounds in marine antifouling paints leads to the problem of Imposex, wherein female organisms develop male organs, and thus threaten procreativity.

Such pioneering research work and the efforts of the Government, social organisations, business, industry and the community are fast aiming to restore the pristine beauty of Japan.

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