Ratio of Japanese Population Served by Wastewater Treatment Increases in FY2007

The ratio of population covered by wastewater treatment reached 83.7% at the end of FY2007, it was announced on August 22, 2008, by three relevant Japanese ministries (the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and the Ministry of the Environment). This is equivalent to 106.35 million people, and represents an increase of 1.67 million from FY2006.

The service coverage is broken down by facility as follows: 91.11 million or 71.7 percent with sewerage, 3.7 million with rural community sewerage treatment facilities, 11.21 million with septic tanks and 0.33 million with community sewage treatment facilities.

However there is a wide gap between big cities and mid- and small-sized municipalities with regard to the coverage rate of sewage treatment. While the rate reached 99.2 percent in Tokyo, it stayed at 67.6 percent in municipalities with populations of fewer than 50,000 people. When considering sewerage only, the rate was 42.7 in municipalities with fewer than 50,000. The figure fell short of 50 percent in 14 of 47 prefectures.

The government has recommended further development of wastewater treatment facilities and narrowing of the gap between big cities and small municipalities in order to maintain the quality of public waters and to improve the quality of river waters.

- Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Tourism official website
http://www.mlit.go.jp/index_e.html
- 14th Annual Water Treatment Award Winners Announced (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/026164.html
- Ministry Considers Trading System for Discharge from Sewerage Works (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/025270.html

Posted: 2009/01/27 06:00:15 AM