Cars powered by wastewater-treatment byproducts blowing out water steam from their exhaust pipes. Solid waste that is transferred directly from households to the incineration plant through a suction duct. Byproducts from those plants being used to generate electricity and heat, and even to make bricks and build artificial islands. Non-revenue water in the range of only 2% to 3%.
Is that a science fiction story plot? No, it’s part of real life, happening right now in Japan. We witnessed all that and more during a recent visit along with representatives from water, sanitation and environmental agencies from eight countries from our region: Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic.
The trip, organized by Japan’s International Cooperation Agency (JICA), gave us the chance to learn first-hand about state-of-the-art facilities and technologies in areas such as wastewater treatment, desalinization, solid waste incineration and integral management, and recycling plants. We also had the opportunity to visit companies and government institutions that deal with those areas.
While our countries have deep differences with Japan in many fields, including economic, social, political, cultural, environmental, etc., there is still a lot that we can learn and many opportunities to implement –after making the necessary adjustments to suit local conditions– its knowledge and experiences.
Throughout history, the Japanese have demonstrated that they can pull through adverse situations, some of which have also hit our own countries. Their experience in the water and sanitation field is perfectly suitable for the situation currently prevailing in our nations.
The following three examples illustrate Japan’s successful experience with quality infrastructure investments to solve problems in the water, sanitation and environment sectors.
- Drinking water in Fukuoka: This 1.5-million-people city faces a chronic shortage of water resources. In 1978 a severe drought forced the authorities to ration water for 287 days. After that experience, Fukuoka has been making investments aimed at boosting the efficiency of its water systems, including the water network’s remote monitoring system, until it reached a non-revenue water level of around 2.5%. In this context, the city decided to build a desalinization plant in order to ensure the availability of water for all its citizens.
- Solid waste in Tokyo. In the Tokyo Prefecture (13 million inhabitants), and in particular in its 23 most densely populated districts, it is nearly impossible to find available land to set up a waste disposal plant. Since 1927, final disposal takes place in an artificial island on the Bay of Tokyo. The current site is considered to be the last available location where a landfill can be built; so reducing the amount of waste dumped in it is paramount for the government. To this end, it has decided to build incinerating plants that meet the highest environmental standards. City dwellers follow very carefully all the complex guidelines and regulations of waste recycling and of separation of waste at source. Additionally, Deputy Environment Minister Tadahiko Ito told us that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games medals will be made of metal recovered from obsolete electronic devices.
- Residual water in Tokyo: In the 1960’s, when Tokyo’s sewerage network covered the needs of only about 35% of users, river and ocean pollution became a severe problem. Today there’s nearly 100% coverage, and the city’s wastewater treatment plants meet strict environmental standards, including advanced treatment systems, sludge incineration and/or recycling facilities, and energy saving and renewable energy equipment.
When we learned about the situation that was prevalent in Japan several decades ago, we found many similarities with the conditions our countries face nowadays, in particular the problems related to misuse and mishandling of solid waste, water resources, and the environment at large.
While we have made some progress towards finding solutions to this problem, this visit to Japan opened up our eyes to a new reality—seeking to improve our living conditions by implementing innovative solutions or improving existing methods is not just a pipe dream. Experiences such as this one help us identify options and ways to make implementation in our nations come true in order to improve the quality of life of their citizens.
We wish to thank JICA and the people of Japan for this valuable experience. Arigato!
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