The misery, unsanitary conditions and hygiene problems caused by severed water supplies in quake-ravaged Ishikawa Prefecture could continue for weeks or even longer.

Workers are frantically trying to repair water-supply and sewerage systems, but damage to the intricate underground pipe networks has been extensive, particularly on the Noto Peninsula.

Two weeks after the Jan. 1 quake, running water remains cut off for more than 55,000 households in eight cities and towns in the prefecture.

In six of these municipalities, almost all areas had no running water as of Jan. 15, according to the Ishikawa prefectural government.

In Nanao, about 20,400 households have no water, followed by Wajima with 10,000, Shika with 8,800, Noto with 6,100, Suzu with 4,800, Anamizu with 3,200, Hakui with 1,350, and Uchinada with 860.

STUCK IN DIRTY CLOTHES

“I can’t do my laundry, I can’t take a bath, and I can’t flush the toilet,” said a 45-year-old local government employee. She and her family of five evacuated from their damaged home in Suzu and are now sheltering at a junior high school in the city.

Drinking water arrives with relief goods. But water for other daily uses remains in short supply, she said.

The family members have been wearing clothes that they took from their now-unlivable house. The clothes have become dirty but there is nothing else for the family to wear.

In Suzu, both water and sewerage systems are crippled. Roads sank, rose and cracked in the earthquake.

“There is no doubt that the underground piping is also in shambles,” a Suzu city official said.
About 300 kilometers of water pipes run under Suzu. City officials must use running water to pinpoint the damaged sections.

However, the Horyu water filtration plant, which supplies water to more than 10,000 people, or 90 percent of Suzu’s population, was damaged in the quake. Power has not been restored at the facility, and inspections for pipe damage have not been completed.

Four other water supply-related locations in Suzu are either without power or have been unable to confirm damage.

The city plans to install a new water purification system at the Horyu plant after Jan. 17 and check for damaged areas using water pumped from the Ukai river.

Suzu officials said they will likely need to completely replace an estimated 110 km of public sewage pipes, used by about 40 percent of the population.

As for the sanitary conditions at evacuation centers in the city, the officials said they can only install temporary toilets for now.

“We face the daunting task of redoing the entire area for both water and sewage. It will probably take years to fully restore the system,” a city official said.

WATER QUALITY TESTS INCOMPLETE

In the Monzen district in the western part of Wajima, work began on the morning of Jan. 15 to repair water pipes.

Workers spent about six hours until late in the evening to connect a pipe that had been dislodged by the earthquake.

After Jan. 16, they will continue to repair damaged pipes and try to send water through them.

“We are accelerating emergency restoration and hope to eliminate the water outage by the end of March,” a representative from the city’s water and sewerage bureau said.

Officials in Nanao have been restoring areas that use well water. About 3,000 households in the city had water supplies on Jan. 14.

However, water quality testing has not been conducted yet.

Every day, members of the Self-Defense Forces bring water trucks to Wajima Junior High School, now an evacuation center for about 500 people.

The man who runs the shelter said, “We use the water for washing and flushing urine in the toilets, but we have not secured enough water to flush feces.”

Evacuees use bags filled with coagulant to dispose of their waste.

Concerns have grown about the spread of infections in the unsanitary conditions.

LOW ‘SEISMIC COMPLIANCE RATE’

In fiscal 2021, Ishikawa Prefecture’s “seismic compliance rate,” which indicates whether water pipes can withstand a “maximum strength” earthquake, was 36.8 percent, compared with the national average of 41.2 percent.

Nanao’s rate was 21.6 percent, Suzu’s was 36.2 percent, and Shika’s was 10.4 percent.

Wajima had a relatively high rate of 52.6 percent.

But a major earthquake-resistant pipe connecting the water treatment plant, which services more than half of the city’s population, to water distribution reservoirs “slipped through due to landslides and tremors,” the city’s water and sewerage division said.

(This article was written by Eriko Nami, Yumi Nakayama, Chiaki Ogihara, Shinya Kashimura, Kunio Ozawa, Juntaro Oka and Shuya Iwamoto.)