What will become of the Idagawa district?

September 21, 2012

Existence of disaster-hit coastal district in Fukushima threatened

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120921p2a00m0na009000c.html

MINAMISOMA, Fukushima -- An administrative district along the coast of Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, is in danger of disappearing as the devastating effects of the March 11, 2011 tsunami and ensuing disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant continue.

Reclaimed land in the Idagawa district that once bore bountiful rice crops has been damaged by seawater carried in by the tsunami, and the soil in paddy fields and a local water-supplying dam are contaminated with radiation from the crippled nuclear plant. There is no indication that residents who lost their homes in the disaster will return.

Before the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, the Idagawa district saw golden rice plants swaying in the wind each autumn. But now it is overrun with tall weeds. All that can be seen on the land are restoration workers and rubble.

"I expect most of the residents won't return," said the 65-year-old head of the district, Munenobu Sato, who resides in a temporary dwelling set up after the earthquake. He said he wants the district to remain, but that could be difficult.

In February last year, the Idagawa district was home to 251 people in 63 households, but nearly 90 percent of the homes in the area were struck by the disaster, and 20 people died. Some 180 hectares of rice paddies that stood at sea level sank, and were covered with water until August this year. In March this year, soil at the bottom of a dam in the Fukushima Prefecture town of Namie that provided water for rice paddies was found to contain cesium with a high radioactivity level of 260,000 becquerels per kilogram.

People in the Idagawa district, where land reclamation was carried out between the Meiji and Taisho eras, have opposed the construction of nuclear power plants.

"The idea of our predecessors that it would be dangerous if there was a nuclear power plant explosion wasn't wrong," commented 81-year-old Waichi Oishi whose family has been in the Idagawa district since his parents' generation.

Last year, the Minamisoma Municipal Government proposed a group relocation to higher ground near the district rice fields, but Idagawa refused.

"Nobody wants to produce rice here," said 76-year-old Masakuni Hozuki, recalling last year's devastating disaster. "The tsunami covered the roof of my home, and when the waves subsided, my home was gone."

It is expected that nearly all of the Idagawa district will be designated as an area at risk of a disaster, meaning homes cannot be built there. It is possible for farmers to construct sheds and resume agricultural work, but Sato comments, "The number of people who want to do that is zero."

Some 200 residents from the district have evacuated to other areas. There are strong calls for the Idagawa district to remain, but its future is up in the air. The Minamisoma Municipal Government is considering the prospects for each district, where the state of evacuations and the return of residents are at different stages, but says "There may emerge some administrative districts whose continued existence is difficult."