Japan Eyes Intensive Repair of Water, Sewage Pipes

Tokyo, Feb. 5 (Jiji Press)--The government said Wednesday that it hopes to designate intensive repair and replacement of water and sewage pipes as a priority measure in its forthcoming plan for making Japan more resilient to natural disasters.

The view was expressed at a meeting of a government panel of experts after a sinkhole appeared on Jan. 28 in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, apparently because of water leaks from a deteriorated sewage pipe.

The current five-year national resilience plan, which includes projects worth 15 trillion yen such as disaster-resilient infrastructure development, is set to end in fiscal 2025 from April.

In a policy speech before the Diet, the country’s parliament, on Jan. 24, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that the new national resilience plan from fiscal 2026 will include projects worth more than 15 trillion yen.

The government expects that the new plan will cover the five years through fiscal 2030.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]