Wells continue to be damaged in the Kumamoto earthquake; residents are worried about delayed recovery in Yatsushiro City

In Yatsushiro City, Kumamoto Prefecture, which was hit by a tremor with a seismic intensity of 6 or higher in the Kumamoto Earthquake, water supply outages have been resolved, but damage continues with wells drying up and water becoming cloudy. The prefecture has worked with the national government to set up a ``Well Water Response Team'' to carry out emergency well restoration, but victims are still expressing their concerns, saying, ``We don't know how long this will last.''

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Yatsushiro City has an abundance of groundwater derived from the Kuma River, so many people pump water from wells for daily use. The city's water supply coverage rate is 52.1%, and for the remaining half of households, well water is an essential lifeline.

According to the prefecture, damage to wells has been confirmed in about 4,500 households in the city so far, and about 3,500 complaints have been received complaining of problems such as a lack of water. As of the 15th, response teams had completed on-site investigations of only 1,374 cases. Although mud and sand were removed from wells that could be cleaned, only 61 cases were improved.

After the earthquake, the water from the well at the home of Ryozo Inui (83) in Yatsushiro City decreased. His wife, Tomiko (81), shrugged, saying, ``Even if we dig the well again, we don't know if there will be water, and it will cost money.''

"Water that looked like a mixture of sand and sludge came up." The well water at the home of an 82-year-old man in Yatsushiro City is gray and cloudy due to the presence of fine sand. She takes a bath at a public bathhouse and does her laundry at a coin laundry, but says, ``I'm worried about not knowing how long it will last.''

In September, the prefecture added well restoration to the scope of the Disaster Relief Act and announced that it would provide support of up to 757,000 yen per household. When re-drilling a well that is shared by four or fewer households, the upper limit is the amount multiplied by the number of households.

According to the National Well Drilling Association, which is made up of well drilling companies, the cost of re-drilling a well is at least several million yen. Supporting businesses from all over the country, including Hokkaido and the Chugoku region, are moving into Kumamoto Prefecture, but a person in charge points out that ``they haven't arrived in time.'' The prefecture is also facing a shortage of contractors, and on the 25th began recruiting contractors who can drill wells in the area centered around Yatsushiro City.