NAHA—A burst pipe connected to a dam on the main Okinawa island cut off water supplies to about 370,000 households across 17 municipalities on Nov. 24, the Okinawa prefectural government said.
The Okinawa Prefectural Enterprise Bureau had resumed supplies from the Nishihara water purification plant to some areas on the morning of Nov. 25 and was working to resolve water outages across the prefecture.
According to the bureau, a damaged water pipe that was drawing water from the dam in Ogimi forced some water treatment plants to halt supplies mainly in the central and southern parts of the prefecture starting around 4 p.m. on Nov. 24.
The Naha city government warned that some areas would experience water outages from 7:30 p.m., including the Shuri district and the eastern and southern parts of the city.
Onna village, Okinawa city, Kita-Nakagusuku village, Nakagusuku village, Urasoe city and Naha city all reported water outages in parts of their areas.
Water supply stations were set up at the Naha City Water Works, the Shuri and Oroku branch offices of the Naha government, and the city’s health center.
According to the enterprise bureau, Naha Airport, located in the outage area, temporarily closed all 44 food and beverage shops in the passenger terminal building on the morning of Nov. 25 to avoid any impact on flight operations.
Souvenir shops were reportedly operating as usual.
Some elementary and junior high schools in the prefecture held only morning classes and canceled school lunches on Nov. 25.
The leak was discovered around 3 a.m. on Nov. 24 after alarms sounded at some purification plants indicating no water inflow.
When a contracted operator conducted patrols, it found a cave-in on flooded prefectural Route 9 in Ogimi due to leakage from the broken water pipe.
The road was temporarily closed but reopened in the evening.
Workers were trying to use another water pipe connected to the dam to resume supplies.
On the morning of Nov. 25, the enterprise bureau resumed water supplies from the Nishihara water purification plant to Urasoe, Naha, Nanjo, Itoman and Tomigusuku cities, as well as the towns of Yaese, Yonabaru and Haebaru.
Municipalities such as Okinawa city, Yomitan village, and Kadena town had been warned of possible water outages, but they did not experience any disruptions.
The pipe that burst was installed in 1967, and the Okinawa Prefectural Enterprise Bureau believes aging infrastructure was the cause of the damage.
In the event of water outages, water trucks are dispatched to hospitals and other emergency facilities.
The prefectural government is providing updates on the Enterprise Bureau’s website at: (https://www.eb.pref.okinawa.jp/).
(This article was written by Kazuyuki Ito and Satsuki Tanahashi.)
AloJapan.com