Communities' goals re. housing areas

April 30, 2012

Tsunami-hit towns aim to move 70% of housing areas

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120430_13.html

Seventy percent of communities devastated by the tsunami in northeastern Japan last year want to move their residential districts inland or to higher ground.

The land and infrastructure ministry asked more than 200 communities in the three hardest-hit prefectures, Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, how they hope to rebuild residential districts.

Seventy percent of the communities say they aim to move residential districts inland or to higher ground.

Twelve percent say they hope to raise the ground level and heighten levees in some areas flooded by the tsunami and move residential districts there.

Eighteen percent say they hope to strengthen and build levees before rebuilding homes where they used to stand.

Ministry officials say communities' goals reflect simulations of possible future tsunami. They say communities in areas that could be hit by waves higher than two meters hope to move residential districts or raise the ground level. They say those in areas that could be hit by smaller waves hope to keep residential districts where they are.