Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force Brings Water Supplies to Akita Prefecture

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:00 JST, July 16, 2023

AKITA — The Ground Self-Defense Force distributed water on Sunday in Happo, Akita Prefecture, where the water supply has been cut off amid record-breaking rainfall.

Water outages affected 114 households in the Minehama district of the town. Happo asked the GSDF through the Akita prefectural government to dispatch disaster relief personnel to the area.

After transporting about 1 ton of water from its Camp Akita in the city of Akita by water truck, the GSDF visited houses in the Minehama district, led by town officials. Personnel distributed three 6-liter packets of water to each household.

“I’m grateful because I don’t know when the running water will be back,” a 67-year-old man who received the water said. “I’ve never seen such a bad situation.”

According to the Happo town office, the water supply is believed to have been cut off because a pipe connecting a water intake area and a distribution reservoir collapsed together with a road.