Frozen pipes in Ishikawa burst, sparking water shortage woes

KAHOKU, Ishikawa Prefecture--Around 8,700 households in two cities and two towns here were left without water as of the evening of Jan. 29 as water pipes froze and burst amid the frigid cold weather.

The Self-Defense Force started providing water in Wajima with its water trucks on Jan. 28, as the city does not have enough people and materials to help residents needing water.

A patrol boat of the Kanazawa Coast Guard Office loaded with tanks of drinking water arrived on Jan. 29 at a port in the city.

The Nanatsuka Health and Welfare Center in Kahoku distributed drinking water to the city’s residents on Jan. 29.

“Using the toilet, bathing, washing clothes and dishes--I can’t do anything (without water),” said a 62-year-old woman living on her own in the city. “Shoveling snow is tough, too, so I’m being hit with a double whammy.”

The woman was forced to buy drinking water worth around 3,000 yen ($23), which is almost the equivalent of one month’s worth of water bills, she said.

“Distribution reservoirs,” or facilities that temporarily store water to ensure the stable distribution of water, were almost emptied because water pipes at abandoned houses froze or burst, leading to large amounts of water leaking out, according to the Kahoku city government’s water and sewage department.

City officials have visited around 500 abandoned houses in areas where the water supply has been cut off and turned off the main taps.

The Kahoku city government resumed the flow of water through pipes in some parts of the city on the evening of Jan. 29.

City officials say they intend to gradually expand the areas where it can resume water flow through the pipes. However, they said it will take time before the city’s residents can drink the water because the outage has rusted some of the pipes in Kahoku.