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Kanagawa Prefecture and WOTA Sign Japan’s First Agreement to Establish a Nationwide Inter-Municipal Mutual Aid Platform for Water Circulation Systems

NEWS RELEASE

“To Prepare for National-Crisis-Level Disasters, a Mutual Support System for Daily Water Supply Equipment Will Be Established Across All 47 Prefectures of Japan.” 

WOTA Corp. (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and CEO: Yosuke Maeda, hereinafter “WOTA”) has signed an agreement with Kanagawa Prefecture concerning on wide-area mutual aid for domestic water equipment and supplies in times of disaster.

This agreement, the first concluded in Japan toward building the Platform, is part of WOTA’s proposed initiative to establish an Inter-Municipal Wide-Area Mutual Aid Platform for Water Circulation Systems (hereinafter “the Platform”) across all 47 prefectures. The initiative won the endorsement of Kanagawa Governor Yuji Kuroiwa, Chair of the National Governors’ Association’s Crisis Management and Disaster Prevention Special Committee at the Committee’s July 2025 session, where he called for the development of a nationwide mutual support framework among local governments.

Informed by the emergency water supply responses during the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake and other recent disasters, this agreement aims to strengthen inter-prefectural cooperation for future large-scale catastrophes—including so-called national-crisis-level disasters. By doing so, the initiative seeks to ensure access to safe water and sanitation in evacuation shelters and affected communities during emergencies.

To realize this vision, WOTA plans to conclude similar agreements with prefectural governments across the country. The goal is to build a flexible and rapid-response support network capable of addressing not only national-crisis-level disasters but also major emergencies that may occur unpredictably in any region.

<Overview of the Agreement>

This agreement aims to establish a mutual support framework among prefectural governments for the provision of domestic water supply equipment in the event of a disaster. The goal is to help ensure access to sanitation and essential water resources at evacuation centers and other critical locations during emergencies.

Key Details of the Agreement

  • Title of the Agreement:
    Agreement on Wide-Area Mutual Aid for Daily Water Supply Equipment in Times of Disaster
  • Main Provisions (Excerpt):
    • In the event of a disaster, daily water supply equipment—such as the “WOTA BOX” and “WOSH”—will be provided by unaffected local governments to those affected.
    • WOTA, acting as the secretariat, will receive support requests and coordinate between municipalities.
    • Rapid information sharing among stakeholders during disasters, including:
      • Damage assessment updates
      • Equipment needs
      • Deployment, operation, and removal schedules for water systems
    • In non-emergency periods, coordination and promotion of pre-positioning of equipment.

＜Background and Rationale for the Platform＞

1. Importance of Securing Domestic Water

During disasters, the restoration of water infrastructure—such as water supply and sewage systems—often takes a long time. In the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, damage to major water purification plants and pipelines is estimated to have caused prolonged water outages affecting over 100,000 people for more than a month (calculated by multiplying the number of affected households by the average household size in Ishikawa Prefecture).

The difficulty of securing water during outages varies depending on its intended use. While drinking water can be obtained relatively easily via bottled water and similar means, domestic water poses a far greater challenge. The volume required for domestic purposes—such as bathing, handwashing, toilet flushing, and laundry—is more than 100 times that of drinking water. Moreover, such uses require wastewater treatment and specialized plumbing systems, making substitute solutions impractical.

In disaster settings, where everyday items cannot replace these systems, dedicated infrastructure is essential to maintain sanitation and daily hygiene. A lack of domestic water can have serious consequences on public health, hygiene, and quality of life.

2. WOTA’s Response in the Noto Peninsula Earthquake

Immediately after the Noto Peninsula Earthquake, WOTA launche emergency water support activities. The company deployed its water circulation systems, which enable showering and handwashing even when water and sewage systems are offline, and supported their autonomous operation at evacuation centers.

Thanks to the cooperation of partners such as The Nippon Foundation and private-sector organizations, as well as equipment lent from municipalities across Japan that already owned WOTA systems, approximately 300 units were deployed throughout the Noto Peninsula. This coverage enabled support for around 89% of evacuation centers in the long-term water outage areas.

3. Challenges and the Need for Wide-Area Mutual Aid

Despite the scale of this deployment, it took over a month to establish the response system. If a pre-established mutual aid framework among local governments had been in place, a faster initial deployment would likely have been possible.

Among different domestic water applications, laundry can be managed by outsourcing to facilities outside the disaster area and transporting clean clothes in. Toilets can be supported with portable units, which are generally available in sufficient quantities—though challenges remain in terms of hygiene and waste removal.

In contrast, showers and handwashing facilities require local water supply and wastewater treatment systems, which were in critically short supply immediately after the disaster. For this reason, the development of a mutual aid system should prioritize showers and handwashing.

In one notable case, a prefectural government coordinated the collection and transport of Water Circulation Systems owned by municipalities within its jurisdiction and successfully delivered more than 10 units to the affected areas within a week. This demonstrated the effectiveness of using prefectures as coordination hubs in a mutual support system.

4. Future Risks and Necessary Countermeasures

Looking ahead, it is projected that a Tokyo Inland Earthquake could result in water outages 50 times larger than those experienced during the Noto disaster, while a Nankai Trough Megaquake could cause disruptions on a 100-fold scale. In such scenarios, individual municipalities will not have the capacity to respond adequately on their own, especially in terms of securing sanitation and domestic water.

To prepare for such national-crisis-level disasters, it is urgently necessary to build a nationwide mutual aid framework centered on prefectural governments. In response to this critical need, WOTA has proposed the creation of this platform, enabling the flexible deployment and sharing of Water Circulation Systems nationwide.

〈Overview of the Platform〉
 This platform is designed to swiftly ensure sanitary conditions and the availability of water for daily use at evacuation centers in areas affected by water outages, particularly in anticipation of large-scale national disasters. It provides three main functions:

  1. Preparedness During Normal Times
     To enhance the effectiveness of mutual support systems, the platform promotes the pre-deployment of water circulation systems through information dissemination and training during normal times. It also establishes a framework for centralized coordination and optimal allocation in the event of a disaster.
  2. Centralized Coordination During Disasters
     In response to requests from disaster-affected prefectures, the platform centrally manages and coordinates the collection of “water circulation systems” owned by unaffected municipalities at the prefectural level, supporting smooth transportation to affected areas.
  3. Optimal Allocation
     In collaboration with disaster-affected prefectures, the platform assesses water demand in areas experiencing water outages and plans and supports the optimal allocation of “water circulation systems” among municipalities within the same prefecture.

〈Future Developments〉
 WOTA plans to gradually sign agreements with prefectural governments across Japan for “Mutual Assistance in the Provision of Water Supply Equipment for Daily Use in Times of Disaster,” as part of the nationwide expansion of this platform. Through these agreements, WOTA aims to build a system capable of responding quickly and flexibly not only to catastrophic, nationwide disasters but also to large-scale disasters that can occur unpredictably in terms of time and location.

[Reference Materials]

[About WOTA Corp.]
 WOTA Corp. is a private company committed to solving the structural challenges of global water issues. Since its founding in 2014, the company has developed decentralized water circulation systems and autonomous water treatment control technologies that recycle household wastewater for maximum reuse, tackling issues such as water scarcity, pollution, and uneven distribution.
WOTA has already launched two products that support emergency water use during outages and contribute to improved public hygiene. In addition, the company has developed a household water circulation system that enables daily water use, and has begun providing water services in select regions both in Japan and abroad.

👉 Learn more: https://wota.co.jp/en/

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