Tokyo Waterworks, 'Safe, Better Tasting Tap Water' Project

Copyright Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau

In 2010, the Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau in Japan has launched a five-year model project to purchase privately owned forests in the Ogouchi reservoir watershed in Tokyo.

There are about 45,000 hectares of forest in the upper basin of the Tama River, and about 22,000 hectares of this forest have become lushly green water conservation forest areas thanks to continuous management for more than 100 years by the Bureau of Waterworks. This forest has three functions; water conservation that stores rainwater into the soil and allows it to run off gradually, prevention of soil runoff and purification of water quality.

Meanwhile, privately-owned forests that account for about 40 percent of forests in the upper watershed of the Ogouchi reservoir have increasingly been deteriorating.

The Bureau of Waterworks plans to purchase abandoned private forests, and practice appropriate management such as thinning, planting, and clearing underbrush. It will also preserve the reservoir areas in good condition into the future and maximize the function of the water conservation forest.

Posted: 2011/04/10 06:00:15 AM