Focus on local firms slows debris removal

Takayuki Ojima, Shinichiro Matsuda and Atsuki Kira / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

Boats thrown on land by the March 11 tsunami litter Kesennuma Port on Friday.

More than two months after the Great East Japan Earthquake, piles of debris created by the ensuing tsunami remain untouched throughout disaster-hit areas.

Municipal governments have consigned most removal work to local companies, a practice that disaster-management experts say is delaying cleanup efforts. Calls are increasing for the central government to play a more active role and for the debris to be removed more quickly.

At a meeting held Friday to discuss reconstruction plans, Kenshi Usui, president of the municipal chamber of commerce and industry in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, complained to a senior official of the Kesennuma branch of the Miyagi General Construction Association.

"I don't think the debris is being removed quickly enough. I want powerful heavy machinery used to clear it away as soon as possible, even if the operators are major firms or companies in other regions," he said.

Before the disaster, Kesennuma was one of the nation's largest fishing centers. Usui operates a deep-sea fishing business.

The tsunami threw nearly 200 tons of debris, including damaged fishing boats and oil tanks, onto land at Kesennuma Port, where there were many processing plants for fisheries products.

A large fire also broke out in the city, and charred ruins remain in and around the port.

Due to ordering problems, however, only a few pieces of heavy machinery were seen removing debris in the area recently. The city government plans to start processing orders for debris removal from privately owned land from Monday.

Orders for debris removal are placed through an association for disposing of disaster-related waste that comprises about 90 local companies, mainly engineering firms, in the city.

The principle is to share work contracts among local companies. The association aims to finish in 200 days, meaning in December.

A law on waste disposal stipulates that the removal of debris is the responsibility of municipal governments.

The government of Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, has also left all elements of removing debris to a branch of the prefecture's association of construction companies, based on oral contracts. Work periods and remuneration were not specified.

The government of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, signed contracts with individual construction companies, but a branch in the city of the prefectural association assigns work areas to each company.

Kesennuma Mayor Shigeru Sugawara stressed that the method was useful, saying, "We need to create jobs and get money flowing inside the city."

But the peak period for bonito fishing by Kesennuma fishermen is between June and November, and for saury fishing between September and November.

An executive of a major local construction company said: "We were asked to finish within 200 days, but heavy machinery and workers are in short supply, so we'll probably miss the deadline. We have to consider seeking help from companies outside our city."

A businessman in the city selling fisheries products said: "Unless we become able to sell fish as soon as possible, more and more people will leave this city. I hope more equipment will be brought in."

Also at Ishinomaki Port, many fishing boats lie on the ground and processing plants for fisheries products have collapsed. There are no prospects for restoring the plant at present.

An Ishinomaki city government official in charge of waste disposal said, "Unless we bring in heavy machinery and workers from outside this city or prefecture, it will be almost impossible to finish removing the debris by next March."

The Environment Ministry estimates the total quantity of debris in the three Tohoku prefectures from the disaster was 24.87 million tons. Only 14 percent had been moved to makeshift dumps as of May 11.

Ishinomaki had the most at 6.16 million tons, but only 270,000 tons of that had been removed.

The central and prefectural governments said the delay in debris removal is mainly the result of the Self-Defense Forces' continuing search for the bodies of the missing and the difficulty of finding sites for makeshift dumps.

However, searches by hand are of limited effectiveness in places with huge quantities of debris. Thus the removal of debris and the search for bodies must be conducted simultaneously.

Municipal governments have selected dump sites mainly from publicly owned land, but the Miyagi prefectural government has said there will not be enough dumps unless privately owned land plots are borrowed.

However, staff shortages are hindering municipal governments' search for suitable sites.

Prof. Hideki Noboru of Meijo University, an expert on local governments, said: "For construction companies as well, there are more benefits from reviving local industries as soon as possible than from creating immediate employment opportunities. It will revitalize local communities as well.

"Two months have passed since the disaster, so administrative entities should be able to judge what should be given priority."