Fukuoka City Enacts Water-Saving Ordinance

On July 4, 2003, Fukuoka City Council adopted Japan's first ordinance to promote water conservation, which will go into effect on December 1 this year.

Fukuoka City has frequently suffered from water shortages. In particular, a severe drought in 1978 necessitated water supply restrictions for as long as 287 days, and another one in 1994 also caused serious water shortages. Learning from these bitter experiences, the city has been working to promote the use of water-saving devices such as faucet attachments and to raise citizens' awareness of water conservation.

The ordinance requires newly-built large-sized buildings with more than 5,000 square meters of floor space (or more than 3,000 square meters in the city center) to have installed a non-potable water system to use rainwater and recycled wastewater. Owners of those buildings need to submit their water conservation plans when they erect new buildings or make expansions. Violators will be first warned, and then the names of those who ignore the warnings will be released publicly.



Posted: 2003/10/19 07:49:37 AM
Japanese version