WOTA releases “Noto Peninsula Earthquake and ‘Disaster Water Stress’ Report in National Disaster Class Disasters (Second Report)”.

Survey on Water Use Problems of Disaster Area Residents Living without Water for Long Periods of Time

WOTA Corporation (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, hereinafter “WOTA; President and CEO: Yaosuke Maeda”) released the “Disaster Water Stress in the Noto Peninsula Earthquake and National Disaster Class Disasters Report (First Report)” on March 11, 2024, based on its survey and analysis of “disaster water stress” in the Noto Peninsula earthquake affected area. The report was published on March 11, 2024. Now, with the aim of disseminating to society the actual situation of water use problems based on the voices of local residents at disaster relief sites, we have identified more detailed disaster water stress and particularly serious and difficult-to-solve water use issues. We dispatched a survey team to the water cut-off areas in the affected areas, where it is still difficult to restore the water infrastructure, to listen to the actual voices of the residents regarding the difficulties they face in their daily lives without sufficient water supply, and published a report on the actual situation as “Disaster Water Stress Report (Second Report).
“Disaster Water Stress Report (Second Report) on the Noto Peninsula Earthquake and National Disaster” (Japanese only)

We would like to express our deepest condolences to the many people affected by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake of 2024, which occurred at 16:10 on January 1, 2024 (hereinafter referred to as the “Noto Peninsula Earthquake”). More than four months after the earthquake, 3,110 households are still reported to be without water supply (as of 14:00, May 8, 2024, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism). (As of 14:00, May 8, 2024, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism).

　WOTA has defined “disaster water stress” as the disruption of daily water use necessary for maintaining physical and mental health and hygiene due to widespread and prolonged water and sewage outages caused by disasters, and has been collecting and analyzing information in parallel with its relief activities in the Noto Peninsula disaster area. In the “Disaster Water Stress in the Noto Peninsula Earthquake and National Disasters (First Report)” published on March 11, 2024, we summarized the outline of “disaster water stress” and the structure of the problem, and estimated the scale of water problems and the scale of preparedness required for such problems in “national disasters” expected to occur in the future, such as an earthquake directly under the Noto Peninsula and a huge Nankai Trough earthquake. The scale of the water problem and the scale of preparedness required for such a disaster are estimated.