[Kumamoto - Preserving groundwater quality and creating a platform for relevant data sharing]

▷ Description

All of the water resources used by Kumamoto City`s 740,000 citizens are entirely supplied by groundwater. For this reason, we have created partnerships with the prefectural government and our ten neighboring municipalities, as well as with businesses and citizens in the region, to undertake vatious groundwater conservation efforts. Moving forward, it is imperative that we work together to sustainably preserve our groundwater`s quality and its water reserves.

▷ Scale

In terms of population, the region has about one million residents across an area of 1,000 square kilometers (which includes our ten neighboring municipalities and the encompass kumamoto prefecture, all of whom share our water supply).

▷ Key specs

Many of our neighboring municipalities are undergoing urbanization, and, as a result, the amount of land that can be used to recharge our groundwater supply decreased by 85% from 1976 to 2014, which has caused the groundwater level to recede for many years. To counteract this, we are currently developing projects to artificially recharge groundwater through rice field inundation projects in Kumamoto and other municipalities.

Furthermore, although our groundwater quality has been consistently evaluated favorably, one portion of the Kumamoto region has shown an increasing concentration of nitrate nitrogen. For this reason, we have established a fertilizer center, begun working with local agrarian families on fertilization countermeasures, and created programs to conduct proper domestic animal excrement disposal.

In this way, municipal administrations, local farmers, and businesses have been working together for quite a while to pursue groundwater conservation.

Leaders from 49 countries will gather at the Asia Pacific Water Summit on April 23rd and 24th, 2022 to discuss each country`s water issues and contribute to finding solutions to the Asia-Pacific region`s water problems.

Moving forward, we need to create a database of all of the measures that have been taken in each city to solve their respective issues with the goal of achieving the 6th Sustainable Development Goal (clean water and sanitation) without leaving anyone behind. We believe it is necessary to create a platform that allows cities with the same water problems to easily reference the database and broadcast this information out. We believe that the WWCF can be that platform.

▷ Additional info

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