Sagi-ike Pond gets airing out

The Yomiuri Shimbun

10:30 JST, January 7, 2023

NARA — Sagi-ike Pond in Nara Park is being drained and dried out under the sun in order to improve the quality of its water.

Nara Park is known for the many deer that live within, and it is due to their feces, as well as the blue-green algae that give off a foul odor in the summer, that the condition of the pond’s water has deteriorated.

Drainage work was also conducted in January and February last year when all the water was pumped out over three days. This time though, some water has been left in the pond in order to protect the organisms living there, and part of the sludge that has accumulated at the bottom is to be removed.

According to the prefectural government office for Nara Park, the pond will continue to be dried out until late February. It will then return to its normal state in time for the tourist season in the spring.

One of the park’s popular tourist spots is a hexagonal wooden pavilion called Ukimido. Built over Sagi-ike Pond in 1916, it appears to float on the water’s surface.