I am Vice President Nagai, working at the Suo-Oshima Satellite Office. There was a lot of news about Suo-Oshima this year!
Some people say, "I didn't even know the name of Suo-Oshima until you went there, but now that you pay attention, you see that it appears in the news quite often." Until last year, Suo-Oshima was a tranquil island that only appeared on national television for the summer's Saturday Hula Dance (held every Saturday during the summer vacation) or the winter's mandarin hotpot (where whole mandarins are put into a hotpot).
However, this year there have been a number of incidents worthy of being covered on Yahoo! News, including a child going missing on the island and a super volunteer man stepping up to help, and a fugitive from Osaka hiding out in a roadside station on the island.
And as 2018 draws to a close, the biggest incident has occurred!
A ship collides with the important Oshima Bridge, which connects the island to Honshu!
The Oshima Bridge, about 1 km long, has been connecting Suo-Oshima Island to Honshu for over 40 years. In the early hours of October 22nd, a large foreign ship with a mast more than 10 meters higher than the height of the bridge attempted to pass under the bridge, breaking the water pipes and internet lines installed on the bridge, putting even the bridge itself in danger.
That day, I was in Tokyo, but my husband on the island told me that the Internet was restored in about half a day, but the water supply was not restored, and the bridge would remain closed to traffic on one side. I was planning to return home the next day, but he even told me, "Maybe it's better not to come back." However, I couldn't not come back...
As of the time of writing (November 12), exactly three weeks have passed since the accident. However, the whole island still relies on water trucks, and the bridge is one-way and large vehicles cannot pass over it. If the wind gets even a little strong, the whole road is immediately closed.
Source: Yahoo! News ( https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/videonews/nnn?a=20181023-00000032-nnn-soci )
The beautiful green Oshima Bridge is an important part of the island's infrastructure, providing water and internet access from the mainland. As an island that can be easily reached by car, it is also a popular destination for tourists.
A life without running water from the taps?!
I couldn't imagine it in real life.
Having water coming from a tap has become a part of our daily lives.
So, when the water outage first began, even though I knew there was no water available, I often found myself unconsciously turning on the faucet after brushing my teeth, or pressing the washlet button after using the toilet.
Ah, it's not coming out.
That's right, there was a water outage.
Although I had seen disaster-stricken areas on the news, and seen people lining up for water trucks, and heard comments about the difficulties they faced without water, I had never really thought about what it would be like in my own life.
It makes you realize how natural it was for water to come out of the tap.
In the midst of all this, we started making various improvements to our lifestyles.
First, prepare three types of water in the bathroom: one for washing hands, one for drinking and brushing teeth, and one for the toilet.
I knew that when the water supply was cut off, I had to use a bucket to flush the toilet, but I didn't realize that I couldn't even reheat the bathtub! So I made my own shower using various tools I had around the house: a heater to heat the water (I had my husband's parents send me one), a pump to pump out the leftover washing water, and a shower head to water the garden!
A bathroom filled with water tanks (left) and a bathroom full of ingenuity (right)
Also, as they went to get water from the water truck, they gradually began to understand how much water they were using each day.
・Shower for two people (male and female) takes about 30 liters (very economical)
- To save money and lead a somewhat normal life, including cooking, you need 70 to 80 liters a day.
・In addition, on days when you do laundry, use about 80 liters per load.
Of course, a bath (filling a tub with hot water and soaking in it) takes about 200 liters, so I'll have to give up on it during the water outage. (Thank goodness I got a bathroom with a heater!)
Looking at it this way, I use quite a lot each day.
And water is heavy.
Even 10 liters is a wobbly journey. 20 liters... I can't even move the 5 meters it takes to carry the water from the water truck to my car. Ah, I'm glad I'm married!
Perhaps it was because we were on Suo-Oshima? We managed to survive the one-month water outage.
But surprisingly, there are some carefree aspects to life here.
At first, I thought about various things like "I wonder if instant foods that don't require washing dishes would be good" or "I heard that if I put plastic wrap on the dishes, I don't have to wash them every time", but in the long run, it's important to eat delicious food and stay healthy! With that in mind, I quickly returned to a diet that was almost the same as usual.
Here's a little about what we had for dinner during the water outage... We met a neighbor who gave us some wood ear mushrooms they'd caught in the mountains, which we used to make eggs. We caught the rockfish in the photo on the left, and got greens from the fields. Another day we had motsunabe (offal hotpot). Perhaps because Yamaguchi Prefecture is close to Kyushu's Hakata, the food culture is similar, and it's easy to get fresh offal. We tend to eat hotpot more often during the water outage, to reduce the amount of dishes we have to wash.
We are physically strong and can carry water, and we have a car, so if necessary we can cross the bridge and get there. However, in Suo-Oshima Town, where the elderly population rate exceeds 50%, we were worried about how the elderly would survive without running water.
It seems like things vary a lot depending on the region and the person, and there are many people who are struggling. But at least in Chikamuro, where I live, we have an old water supply (apparently it's mountain spring water. It's actually for agricultural use, but many people have it in their homes and use it for daily life), so surprisingly, everyone seems to be living their lives pretty much as usual.
・An old man (estimated age 90) who doesn't own a car
--- The water supply has been cut off, but is there still water?
"Water outage? I went fishing today. I caught my 30th squid!" (The house has an old water supply and a Goemon-style bath. The toilet is probably "old-fashioned," so life itself seems to be almost unchanged.)
・An old man (estimated age 70) returning home from farm work
--- They now offer free water quality testing for wells and springs.
"Water quality test? I've been drinking this water for a long time, so it's fine." (What? It's agricultural water. Well, as long as it doesn't upset my stomach, it's fine.)
・The lady next door who always makes the side dishes for me (estimated age 65)
"I heard the water truck is coming? We still have the old water pipes, so you can come in and use them whenever you want, even if I'm not here." (Yes, I don't even lock the door when I go out.)
・An old lady (estimated age 70) who was watching over the water truck
"Oh man, that's tough. If it goes on like this forever, won't people start to dislike Oshima even though they came all the way here? (laughs)" (It seems like it's fun to talk to people I don't usually see...?!)
Of course, there are also elderly women who live alone and are not physically strong, or whose houses are high up in the mountains. For these people, young people in their 60s (!) carry water for them.
They go to check on each other and call out to each other. They usually share detailed information with each other, such as "It seems that the old man over there has hurt his back," or "That old lady's son can only come once a week," so they know who needs what kind of help even before they are asked.
... I'm sure they were worried about us the most, since we had a car and were physically strong.
In particular, Chikamuro, where the satellite office is located, used to distribute water to neighboring areas, and there is a high-quality water source upstream in the area that never runs dry. As shown in the photo at the beginning of this article, even when a water truck comes, there are times when there is no one asking for water, and the place is surprisingly empty. (We even received a call from the town hall asking, "No one from Chikamuro comes to get water. Is that okay?") Of course, even within Suo-Oshima, we have heard stories of people having to wait up to two hours at water stations, so there seem to be big regional differences even within the island.
When I asked my friends on the island (a woman who has lived there for three years and lives alone), they told me things like, "My neighbor has well water, so I borrow it to use for the bath (they're not relatives or anything, just a neighbor!)," and "I have to carry drinking water, so I've built up muscles," and so on. Everyone is helping each other out.
Many hair salons and some restaurants are still operating using well water, and tourist hubs "roadside stations" have also quickly reopened.
A few days after the water supply was cut off, I called my favorite hair salon on the island and said, "I made a reservation, but I guess it's not possible," and to my surprise, they replied, "We're open." I heard that they draw water from the well and boil it every morning so that they can open for business.
What would have happened in Tokyo?
Suo-Oshima's potential revealed through the water outage
It is true that this accident has caused me to experience the inconvenience of not having running water for the first time in my life. Even within Suo-Oshima, there are many, many people who have been hit hard and are living difficult lives.
But what if this happened in Tokyo?
Of course, there are no wells near their homes, and most people don't have cars or carts to carry water.
Also, can I go to my neighbor's house to borrow their bathroom?
Would you be able to bring water to the elderly woman living next door without her asking?
At the time of writing this article, it is expected that the water supply will be restored for another month, and the bridge will not be fully restored until April of next year.
It's true that because it's a rural area, recovery may be slow.
And in this region where tourism thrives, the impact on restaurants, retail stores and other businesses, which have seen a sharp decline in tourists due to transportation concerns and limited water supply, is immeasurable.
However, if you think about it, this kind of incident-like water main destruction could happen anywhere. If a water outage were to occur for this long and over this area in a city such as Tokyo, would people really be able to continue living their lives, even if it was inconvenient?
There were no riots, no deaths (!), and everyone in the community was able to help each other while making good use of the old infrastructure. They accepted what had happened, sometimes got angry, and sometimes laughed off the situation with a joke, and each of them looked forward and steadily worked on what they could do.
This water outage was a major realization for me as it allowed me to feel the true strength of Suo-Oshima.
It looks like it will be some time before the water supply is cut off and the bridge is fully reopened.
I hope we can get through this by each doing what we can and helping each other out where we lack.
Let's do our best! Suo-Oshima "Only now, island products shop"
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