Desalination of Nakaumi and Shinjiko Lakes Cancelled

Japan's Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tadamori Oshima, officially announced on December 13, 2002, the cancellation of a desalination project of Lake Nakaumi and Lake Shinjiko, which straddle Shimane and Tottori prefectures.

The government sought to boost food production in the area when it launched the project in 1963, in which the two brackish lakes were to be cut-off from the Japan Sea (East Sea), 1,540 hectares reclaimed for farmland, and the lakes desalinated to supply agricultural water for the reclaimed land and surrounding area. In 1988, the desalination project was postponed due to deteriorating water quality.

The two prefectures had been striving to reach consensus on the desalination of the lakes, but instead were able to get stakeholders to agree to alternative water supplies. Consequently, the governors of both prefectures announced that they wanted to scrap the project, which led to the Ministry's recent decision. The government has already poured some 85.1 billion yen (about U.S.$692 million) into the entire project.



Posted: 2003/01/17 09:59:35 AM
Japanese version