日本谏早湾围垦工程可望纠正

日本谏早湾围垦工程可望纠正

谏早（Isahaya)湾是在日本九州有明海的西侧，从熊本到长崎会经过的一个海湾，一直以来都是一块水鸟的重要栖息地，可是在1997年，因为围垦农地及防洪工程修筑了海堤，令海湾干涸，海湾环境受到严重破坏，不再是一个水鸟的重要栖息地。对于谏早湾的保护问题，当时日本的环境保护团体都在力争，但农业部门一意孤行，那时候闹得相当厉害。在谏早湾事件之后，日本基本上已经再没有围垦海湾的工程。很多人觉得，连政府方面都认识到这是个问题，谏早湾可以说是最后一仗了。最近，由于有明海的渔民提出围垦后影响渔业和环境，水门可能会重开，纠正以往谏早湾造成的破坏。

下面贴上的是读卖新闻的英语版

Isahaya Bay issue could take new turn

Mikoto Hata / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

A protracted dispute over whether to open floodgates built in a 253 billion yen government-funded project in Isahaya Bay, Nagasaki Prefecture, is expected to soon enter a crucial phase with a government study panel poised to decide the issue by the end of this week.

The 11-member study panel, headed by Senior Vice Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Akira Gunji, was set up early this month as an advisory body to Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu.

In launching the panel, Akamatsu hinted he would favor opening the pair of floodgates on the seven-kilometer-long dike, in response to demands from fishermen from four prefectures along the bay--Fukuoka, Saga, Kumamoto and Nagasaki.

The massive reclamation project began in 1989 to create farmland and prevent flooding on the Isahaya Bay coastal area of the Ariake Sea, touching off intense controversy over the project's costs, benefits and environmental impact.

More than 20 years on, indications are increasing that the bay drainage project--long referred to by critics as a typical example of public works projects that seldom are able to be halted once approved--might be subject to a rare review.

Farmers vs fishermen

When a bus with Akamatsu and his aides aboard was traveling along the flood control dike road on April 15, about 1,000 local residents, most of whom appeared to be farmers, raised a chorus of yells, saying, "Never open the floodgates!"

A large number of plastic greenhouses stand within the area of land reclaimed from the bay. The two extensive land tracts cover 672 hectares of farmland, 13 times as large as Tokyo Disneyland.

Settlement in the reclaimed land began in 2008, and currently 41 individual and corporate farming entities cultivate vegetables such as onions and potatoes.

The farming businesses claim that should the floodgates be opened, seawater would enter a freshwater reservoir in the reclaimed area used by farmers for irrigation purposes. That would ruin crops, they argue.

The 253 billion yen that has been spent on the project, when divided by the number of farming entities, is equivalent to about 6 billion yen per farming unit.

On April 14, the day before Akamatsu's visit to the dike, the farm minister met in Saga Prefecture with a fishermen's group who urged that the floodgates be opened--a stance diametrically opposed to those of the Nagasaki farmers.

The fishermen claimed the land reclamation dike caused changes in Ariake Sea tidal flows and spawned red tides harmful to marine life. The floodgates must be opened as early as possible to resuscitate the Ariake Sea as a "sea of treasure," according to the fishermen.

Officials of the Saga prefectural government said the closure of the gates since April 1997 has halved fish hauls in the Ariake Sea to about 10,000 tons per year, from about 20,000 tons before the gates' closure.

Fan shells, a high-priced species of shellfish, are on the verge of extinction in the sea. In litigation over the land reclamation project with the government as defendant, the Saga District Court ruled in 2008 the government should open the pair of floodgates "for more than five years on an experimental basis" to determine the environmental impact.

But the gates have stayed closed while the government appealed the district court ruling.

For its part, the farm ministry has been conducting an environmental assessment to explore the potential impact of the gates' opening. However, the ministry has not said definitely when those studies will conclude.

Opinions are mixed among the governments of the four prefectures on the Ariake Sea. While Nagasaki opposes opening the gates, maintaining that the dike plays an important role in preventing floods and protecting against tsunami, Saga, Fukuoka and Kumamoto demand their opening.

Upper house race in mind?

When farm minister Akamatsu announced on Feb. 23 his intention to establish the study panel, he said, "The government will come out with a specific plan [involving the Isahaya land reclamation project] regardless of whether to open or not open the floodgates."

He said the government will decide whether to begin studying the wisdom of opening the gates even though the farm ministry's environmental assessment has yet to be completed.

Akamatsu has been on record many times as saying the government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama "is determined to take advantage of the power change [that occurred when the Democratic Party of Japan defeated the Liberal Democratic Party in last year's House of Representatives election] to accomplish things the LDP-led government could not," while noting the Hatoyama government was ready to do "everything necessary to revive the Ariake Sea."

Akamatsu's remarks have led some local residents to speculate the government likely will support the idea of opening the floodgates.

The speculation is due mainly to the fact that the Feb. 23 statement by Akamatsu came just two days after a gubernatorial election in Nagasaki Prefecture, in which a candidate backed by the DPJ was defeated.

Therefore, there are people who are dismissive of Akamatsu's stance, saying it essentially reflects the DPJ's irritation over the loss in the gubernatorial race or is a bid to draw support for the ruling party in the coming House of Councillors election.

The incumbent Nagasaki governor is opposed to opening the floodgates.

A considerably large number of residents of the prefecture are critical of the government for moving toward favoring the opening of the gates, although results of the ministry's environmental assessment studies are still unavailable.

Questions over gates' opening

What can be expected if the gates are opened?

According to the farm ministry, when the gates are opened fully, the water level of the reservoir separated by the dike from the rest of Isahaya Bay will be more than two meters higher than usual at high tide.

Since seawater will come into and go out of the reservoir, the Ariake Sea will likely be roiled with earth and sand from the reservoir, the ministry said.

Estimates by the Nagasaki prefectural government say costs necessary for building an embankment to prevent earth and sand in the reservoir from flowing into the bay and to prepare for floods would amount to more than 68 billion yen.

Furthermore, opening the gates would make it inevitable that farmland in the reclaimed land zone would be damaged by seawater, the prefecture said, adding that a colossal amount of additional funds would be necessary to ensure new irrigation water sources for local farmers.

(Apr. 25, 2010)

Simba 2010-4-28 06:29

很希望这一则事件，令中国和韩国的围海开垦工程做一个前车之鉴。要是没有好好考虑环境后果，匆匆上马，将来可能要付出更高的代价。希望为政者有一个长远的眼光，那就是国家之幸。