FEELING WALLED-IN
Some Japanese not adjusting to seawalls meant to keep them safe
WHEN a massive earthquake struck in 2011, Japanese oyster fisherman Atsushi Fujita was working by the sea. Soon after, a huge black wave slammed into his city and killed nearly 2,000 people.
Seven years on, Fujita and thousands like him along Japan’s northeast coast have rebuilt their lives alongside huge seawalls that experts say would protect them if another giant tsunami struck.
The 12.5m-tall concrete wall replaced a 4m breakwater that was swamped in the March 11, 2011 disaster. The quake and tsunami, which reached as high as 30m, killed nearly 18,000 people and triggered a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima power plant.
“It feels like we’re in jail, even though we haven’t done anything bad,” the Fujita, 52, said.
Since the disaster, some towns have forbidden construction in flat areas nearest the coast and have relocated residents to higher land. Others, such as Rikuzentakata, have raised the level of their land by several metres before constructing new buildings.
Some 395km of seawalls have been built, costing 1.35 trillion yen (RM49 million)
“Seawalls will halt tsunamis and prevent them from inundating the land,” said Hiroyasu Kawai, researcher at the Port and Airport Research Institute in Yokosuka, near Tokyo.
“Even if the tsunami is bigger than the wall, the wall will delay flooding and guarantee more time for evacuation.”
Many residents had welcomed the idea of the walls, but have become critical over time. Some said they were not consulted enough in the planning stages or that money spent on walls meant other rebuilding, such as housing, had fallen behind.
Fujita said while the tsunami improved oyster farming by stirring up sea floors and removing accumulated sludge, the walls could block natural water flow from land and impact production.