Have you heard about the “Ishiki Dam”?

Koubaru, Kawatana-cho, Higashi Sonogi-gun, Nagasaki Prefecture.

Half a century has passed since the plans for constructing a dam on the Ishiki River which flows through Koubaru and is a tributary of the Kawatana River had surfaced.

Both Nagasaki prefecture and Sasebo city have stated the reasons for promoting this dam to be “solution for the water shortage in Sasebo city” and “measures for preventing flood in the Kawatana River”, however

specialists have found out that there is no need for this dam.

If the construction is forcefully implemented, 13 households and 60 residents who reside in Koubaru will be forcefully evicted from their homes and land.

It will also mean the destruction of an area known for its beauty and as the “land of fireflies”.

We want to live in Koubaru, our birth place and leave this environment that we love for our children.

We sincerely ask for your help.

1. Is the water demand projection really accurate?

The City of Sasebo claims that “Sasebo City has been suffering a chronic water shortage and is expecting a water source shortage of 40,000 m3 in 2024, with the only solution to remedy this issue being the construction of the Ishiki Dam”, however, is this really the truth?

For 20 years after the severe drought in 1994, water supply has never been suspended in Sasebo City. Every year since 2008, the average annual water storage rate has exceeded 90% and the actual usage of water is decreasing each year. This is due to the decreasing population and wide spread use of water-saving devices, resulting in the decline of water demand throughout Japan. However, in contradiction to these figures the projection by Sasebo city is soaring for some reason, indicating a drastic and sudden increase.

The chart below is the new water demand projection presented by Sasebo City during the reevaluation of the Ishiki Dam Project conducted in 2012. The amount of maximum water supply per day is marking a rapid increase since fiscal year 2014, however, the actual amount of usage is not increasing but rather decreasing. The gap between the projected amount and the actual figure has reached 14,500m3. The City also presented the projected use of industrial water to be 3.5 times more in a mere 4 years, that the ”Association of Scientists Questioning the Process of Verifying Dams” evaluated this projection to be “the ultimate fabrication”. Now that fiscal year 2015 has started, one wonders if there is anyone who would seriously think that the industrial water usage would exceed 6,000m3. Even the Water Supply Department itself had projected the usage to be 1,848m3 in the FY2015 budget proposal documents they had created.

We, the citizens, sincerely hope for the City to reevaluate the fictitious projection fabricated to aid the dam construction and for them to establish an appropriate water supply plan based on truthful, real projections.

2. Will Ishiki Dam truly be effective as a measure for Kawatana River’s flood control?

The citizens of Kawatana-cho have experienced 4 floods in 70 years after WWII, however, since the repair work implemented along the river after the last flood of 1990, flood control measures have improved significantly.

The Prefectural government also concedes that if all the repair works are completed, the river will not overflow even without the Ishiki dam and even with the same large volume of rainfall as was recorded in the last 4 floods. Despite their admission, they claim that the Ishiki Dam is absolutely necessary to prevent the river from flooding against a once-in-a 100 year heavy rainfall.

According to the river engineering experts who calculated the water level with a once-in-100 year heavy rain estimation, they found that the Kawatana River is projected to overflow in only a very short section and that the shortage in the height of the dike was at approximately 4cm. Flooding will be easily preventable by raising the level of the dike and the cost entailed for these measures is estimated to be quite low. There are more urgent matters such as taking measures to prevent overflow in the tributary rivers such as the Noguchi River and to prevent inland flooding. If these measures are not taken, the experts point out that even if they built the Ishiki Dam, the dam would not be able to prevent a flood from occurring with conditions seen in the 1990 flood.

In addition, we have been experiencing unexpected heavy downpour frequently in the recent years. When unanticipated heavy rain falls, the water level instantly rises with the water discharged from the dam, that there are reports on cases where the dams result in creating more serious damages.

3. Who bears the cost (28.5 billion Yen) of building the dam?

Ishiki Dam Project is the joint project of Nagasaki Prefecture and Sasebo City, and 65% (about 18.5 billion Yen) of the cost of building the dam will be carried by Nagasaki Prefecture and 35% (about 10 billion Yen) by Sasebo City. In addition, the Prefectural government and the City office will both receive subsidy from the Japanese Government. The Prefectural government will receive subsidy for 1/2 of the cost (9.25 billion Yen) from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism, and Sasebo City will receive subsidy for 1/3 of its cost (3.32 billion Yen) from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. This means that nearly 12.6 billion Yen from the Japanese taxpayers will be used to build the Ishiki Dam. Now that the national budget deficit is increasing every second, and the amount of debt per citizen exceeds 10 million Yen, we would like the usage of tax to be examined very, very closely.

For the citizens of Sasebo, the cost of building the dam is not the only cost they will be burdened with. In addition to the building cost for the Ishiki Dam, there is also a cost called relevant project cost which includes expense to maintain the related facilities, including water conveyance pipes, water filtration plant to purify the water carried in these pipes, and water distribution pipes. The cost for these relevant projects accounts for 25.3 billion Yen, and Sasebo City is responsible for the entire amount. The total cost of Ishiki Dam for Sasebo City will be 35.3 billion Yen, but most of the citizens are not aware of this fact. Sources to finance these cost are from the national treasury subsidy (5.5 billion Yen), money invested from the general account (5.3 billion Yen), and the Waterworks Bureau (24.5 billion Yen). How does the Waterworks Bureau plan on paying their share of these costs when the water demand continues to decrease and revenue from water bills also continue to decline? In the end, this situation will lead to the raise in water utility rates.

We ask the people of Sasebo City, do you think that the Ishiki Dam is necessary even with such a huge burden placed on you?

4. Don’t we need to preserve beautiful Kobaru area and a traditional community that has been kept unchanged for future generations?

“Kobaru”, the proposed building site for the Ishiki Dam, enjoys Nanohana in the spring and cosmos in full bloom in autumn. It is home to fireflies dancing wildly during the summer nights. Kobaru is also an exceptional habitat for various precious species such as the brown dippers, crested kingfishers, leopard frogs, and Onagasanae (gomphidae) which are categorized as Threatened I Species in Nagasaki Prefecture’s Red Data Book. The Kasumi Salamander, Yamato cobitis, Freyers Purple Emperor butterflies, Kurosanae (gomphidae), and Ojirosanae (gomphidae) are categorized as Threatened II Species. The Ishiki River that runs in the middle of this land is a stream so small in size that it barely shows in photographs and closely resembles the stream mentioned in a popluar children’s song called “Haru no Ogawa” (Streams in Springtime). Children born in Kobaru have grown up right here, chasing fish and playing in and along these waters.

The adult folks here grow very delicious rice and vegetables using the clear water from the Ishiki River, raising healthy children. There are approximately 60 people from infants to elders who still live in Kobaru. They all gather together for various occasions such as ohanami (party under the cherry blossoms), fireflies festival, nagashi somen (flowing noodles in pipes fashioned out of bamboo halves), and ground golf, etc. People enjoy eating, drinking, and talking at those events as if though they are one big family. This village is perhaps an endangered community, where the remnants of places where a deep connection between the people and the beautiful sceneries forgotten somewhere along the way by the Japanese remain firmly intact.

5. Do we really need the dam by sacrificing the lives of 13 households with 60 people?

We Japanese citizens are entitled to human rights such as the Property Rights and Rights of Abode guaranteed by the Constitution. No one is supposed to invade into one’s personal properties. However, there is a condition stipulating protection only if it does not infringe on the public welfare. Nagasaki Prefecture and Sasebo City, based on the notion that the Ishiki Dam contributes to the welfare of people in the Prefecture and the City, decided that properties owned by the Kobaru locals who are preventing the dam from being built could be forcibly acquired. They are now taking procedures to proceed with the compulsory acquisition.

The Expropriation Committee has completed its examinations on the farmland of 4 families for which the adjudication to expropriate their land were submitted in September 2014, leaving us only to wait for the final decision. In January 2015, Nagasaki Prefecture attempted to conduct an inspection in order to apply for expropriation of more lands including residential land, however, they were not able to proceed due to the actions taken by local residents and the supporters who opposed. If the residential lands are to be expropriated, residents will need to leave their house by the imposed deadline. If they do not obey, the Governor of Nagasaki has the power to order an administrative subrogation and destroy the homes where the people still live in. Throughout all the years since Japan proceeded as a democratic nation postwar, there is no record of a public enterprise which goes to the extent of demolishing as many as 13 homes and forcibly evicting 60 people having been realized. Is Nagasaki Prefecture attempting to realize this? Do they think that they are capable of doing so?

One landowner made the following statement of opinion at the Promoting Committee of Ishiki Dam Construction in Sasebo City Council:

“If my house were to be demolished, I will most likely tie myself to the pillar in my house and oppose. Even if my house gets taken down, I would build a small shack and continue to live there. If even that shack gets taken down, I would put up a tent and live there. We are prepared to put our lives on the line to protect our homeland.”

We are now at a point where each and every one of us should take the time to thoroughly examine whether this dam, that will destroy the local people’s lives to such an extent, is truly necessary.