Japanese Turning Up Noses at Tap Water

Tokyo residents, who once proudly claimed that they had the cleanest water supply of any world capital, are doubtfully starting to wrinkle their noses at what comes out of their taps.

The city’s water authorities like to boast of the high quality of the supply and the state-of-the-art technology that pumps water around the clock to over 11 million people.

But now angry citizens are forming pressure groups to complain about green algae in their tap water that gives off foul smells, while sales of bottled mineral water are booming.

“There are 20 million people nationwide who are troubled by the poor taste of drinking water,” said Sadao Kojima, director of Nihon Suido Consultants Corp.’s Central Laboratory and Research Center, a private group.

The root of the problem is the huge increase in the amount of household sewage poured into the water system and the chlorination used by the authorities to neutralize it.

Housewives pour more and more cooking oil, meal leftovers and detergent down the sink.

“Household effluent is by far the major culprit, accounting for over 50% of our river and reservoir pollution,” said Hajime Taniguchi, director of the city government’s water purification center at Kanamachi on the outskirts of Tokyo.

“It far exceeds pollution caused by factory effluent, which has been cut significantly by legislation.”

Usually, microorganisms feed on the effluent poured into rivers from Japanese homes. But the sharp increase in the effluent is destroying oxygen in the rivers and the microorganisms, which are cleansing agents, that it sustains.

Chemicals sprayed from helicopters on to rice paddies and golf courses also cause contamination. In overcrowded and mountainous Japan, paddy fields, golf courses, rivers and residential areas are commonly found in close proximity.

Kojima also blamed inadequate water purification tanks installed at city condominiums and Japan’s woefully inadequate sewage infrastructure.

Although 95% of Tokyo households are connected to a sewer network, the figure nationwide drops to just 45%.

“Sewerage was given low priority during the years of rapid economic expansion in the 1950s and 1960s,” Taniguchi said.

“Funding for such infrastructure projects comes not from national taxation but from local budgets. These often cannot afford the costs of laying down sewerage links, and in any case, roads tend to gobble up much of the investment,” he said.

In rural and even suburban Japan, squat toilets are still common. The sewage vacuum removal truck is a common sight, doing its monthly round of homes not connected to the main sewer system.

Foreign visitors are often surprised that Japanese, ranking among the world’s richest nations, often lack proper flush toilets in their homes.

Reflecting the public’s growing concern over the quality of tap water, sales of bottled mineral water have soared.

In fiscal 1991 that ended in March, 1992, Japan produced 64.5 million gallons of mineral water, treble the amount 10 years ago. During the same period, mineral water imports jumped fifteenfold to 9.2 million gallons.

In another blow to Japanese pride, a newspaper survey of 15 embassies in Tokyo found that six thought Japanese water was inferior to their own.

Such findings come as a shock to Japanese who tend to believe that their water is of a higher quality than most and that tap water in most foreign countries is undrinkable.

“It is a matter of pride to us that we are able to provide tasty, safe drinking water to one of the world’s largest population centers,” said Yutaka Imai, director-general of Tokyo’s Waterworks Bureau.

“We have 400 years history in Tokyo of developing our water system. It underpinned Japan’s rapid economic growth this century and is the bedrock of our modern urban life,” he said.