According to Stuff.co.nz, Opponents of the 820 billion yen argue that the massive concrete barriers will damage marine ecology and scenery.
In the northern fishing port of Osabe, Kazutoshi Musashi chafes at the 12.5-meter high concrete barrier blocking his view of the ocean.
Pouring concrete for public works is a staple methodology for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its backers in big business and construction, and local officials tend to go along with such plans.
Head of the UN's Office for Disaster Risk Reduction Margareta Wahlstrom said that such a reliance on these safeguards can lead communities to be too complacent at times.
[dnaindia.com]
23/3/15
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Related:
Doubts over gov’t plan to erect chain of breakwaters along ‘tsunami coast’ after 2011 tsunami overwhelmed record-breaking seawall....
ReplyDeleteMore than 30 years ago the northern Japanese city of Kamaishi set out to build at a cost of $1.6 billion what would become, according to the Guinness Books of World Records, the largest and, presumably, the strongest seawall ever built.
The massive seawall was completed three years before it would experience its ultimate test, the 9-point Richter scale Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami that battered Kamaishi and shoreline communities in three prefectures on March 11, 2011.
Across the three hardest-hit prefectures -- Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate -- more than a million homes and buildings were destroyed. Some 18,000 people died in the deluge, while 2,000 remain missing. More than 200,000 were evacuated.
The Kamaishi seawall built at such great expense utterly failed to hold back the surging tide, which at an estimated 30 feet high overwhelmed the 20 foot-high breakwater. About 90 percent of the other seawalls along the northeast coast suffered similar fates.
In what might be called a triumph of faith over experience, the Japanese government is planning to erect a nearly 250-mile long chain of breakwaters mostly along the "tsunami coast" of northeastern Japan, which was so badly ravaged during the quake and tsunami.
The $6.8 billion seawall project is part of the government’s multi-billion reconstruction budget, much of which currently remains unspent, as the localities debate whether to abandon communities close to the shoreline and move farther inland -- or build the walls so that they can feel secure against another tsunami.................http://www.aa.com.tr/en/news/485062--the-great-wall-of-japan
28/3/15