Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2019 January 23 - 29 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Hatano investigates into cause of stream drying up near tunnel construction site

Japanese Communist Party parliamentarian Hatano Kimie on January 21 visited Kanagawa’s Isehara City to conduct an on-site investigation into a dried-up stream near the construction site of a highway tunnel.

Hatano was accompanied by around 20 persons, including JCP members of the Isehara City Assembly and local farmers as well as by a Central Nippon Expressway Company (NEXCO Central) official in charge of the tunnel construction project.

Hatano and other participants walked upstream along a dry riverbed covered with fallen leaves and inspected a waterfall which has been waterless since July last year. The company official admitted that they cannot rule out the possibility that the construction work affected the source of the stream.

In the inspection, the farmers said that they want the stream and waterfall to be brought back to life as it is a key source of agricultural water for irrigation which is essential in the upcoming rice seedling growing season. The company official said that the company is considering taking measures to restore the stream to life. The farmers added that they already bought rice seeds and that if water from the stream does not become available by the end of March, it will force them to give up on this year’s rice crop.

Hatano said that by the end of February, NEXCO Central should inform local residents of what measures it will implement so that the water flow will be resumed by the end of March. The NEXCO official said that the company will make announcements through the city government.