Photo/Illutration Construction of emergency temporary housing units is under way in Anamizu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on March 14. (Tomoki Miyasaka)

Residents who lost their homes in the Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula earthquake are scrambling to move into temporary housing, but only a fraction of the number of units needed have been built.

Three months after the quake, the difficulty in securing stable housing is hampering efforts to rebuild and restore residents’ lives in the region.

In late March, The Asahi Shimbun interviewed eight cities and towns where the Ishikawa prefectural government is constructing emergency temporary housing. They were asked about applications for these units.

Although the calculation methods differed from municipality to municipality, the newspaper determined the total number of applications was 8,293.

A prefectural government official had said 1,600 units, including 988 already completed, would be finished by the end of March.

In Wajima, the application number was 4,140, followed by Suzu with 1,962, Noto with 613, Nanao with 611, Anamizu with 482, Shika with 335, Uchinada with 87, and Hakui with 63.

For Wajima and Suzu, the numbers included those submitted by unqualified applicants and duplicate applications. Officials estimate the actual number of applications is about 3,200 for Wajima and around 1,000 for Suzu.

According to the prefectural government, construction of 5,086 temporary housing units was under way as of March 28.

The Ishikawa prefectural government has also offered 8,200 units deemed temporary housing in and outside of the prefecture.

However, only a few of these rental housing units are available in the northern part of the Noto Peninsula, which was hardest hit by the earthquake. And the disaster victims prefer to stay close to their homes.

Ishikawa Governor Hiroshi Hase said the prefecture will try to have all applicants move into their preferred temporary housing units by the end of August.

The New Year’s Day earthquake destroyed 8,400 houses and damaged more than 75,000 homes. At least 8,100 people were living as evacuees as of March 29.

RELIEF FOR COUPLE

Noriaki Kagawa says he “felt abandoned” after his house in Anamizu was destroyed in the Jan. 1 earthquake.

Kagawa, 73, and his wife, 79, who suffers from heart and knee problems, moved from one shelter to another over three months.

They had evacuated to the third floor of the town government’s office building, slept in their car in parking lots, and stayed at relatives’ homes on other occasions.

Kagawa searched for a temporary housing unit or any other place where they could try to settle down.

The couple took “secondary evacuation” at a hotel in Kanazawa in mid-March, but they had to vacate the room at the end of the month.

He was relieved to learn that he and his wife would be able to move into a temporary housing unit near his home at the end of March.

SEVERAL PROBLEMS

Restoration work on roads and water systems has been difficult, which has slowed progress on building the temporary housing.

The head of a construction company said workers commute two and a half hours each way from the southern part of the prefecture to the temporary housing construction site. With other rebuilding projects under way, the company is suffering from a labor shortage.

“Working hours are limited, and it costs (the company) a lot to pay for overtime,” the boss said.

Wajima Mayor Shigeru Sakaguchi said the prefectural government has been making efforts.

“But considering the victims, I honestly feel that it has been taking a long time,” he said.

The 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes in Kyushu destroyed a similar number of houses. Three months after the main quake, construction had started on 3,700 units, and 2,000 were completed.

(This article was written by Yuichi Nobira, Tomoki Miyasaka and Shinichi Kawarada.)

Related News