2. Description of major initiatives
(1) Environmental Approaches for Integrated Water Resource Management
i) Enhancing Water Environment
In order to enhance water quality, Water Quality Standards have been set on seas, rivers, lakes and groundwater. Wastewater from factories and businesses are under regulation, and effluent limits has been set on Biological/Chemical Oxigen Demand, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, among others. Regular monitoring on water quality is carried out by local governments.
Past regulations have been quite effective in improving quality of river waters. The average BOD in river water in Japan has dropped from 3.3 in FY1979 to 1.6 in FY2003. The main causes are considered to be improvements in water treatment in major factories and dissemination of sewage systems and “Joukasou” a Japanese system for household wastewater treatment which will be explained in (2) ii).
On the other hand, improvements in lake water quality have been rather limited. Because of this, the Government of Japan has been discussing policies to further improve the lake water quality by measures such as improving use of fertilizers and conserving lakeside vegetation.
ii) Ecosystem approach on River basins management
In order to cope with deterioration of water quality and water ecosystem in river basins, many programmes or projects are proactively implemented mainly in urban area e.g. establishment of the organization to discuss the sound water circulation with stakeholders, project implementation for river environment restoration.
iii) Water Resources Conservation Function through Appropriate Forest Improvement and Conservation, Agricultural activities Japan has been conducting measures to improve the stable supply of water resources in good quality through exertion of public function of forests by facilitating sustainable forest management in accordance with forest planning system. This system contributes to forest improvement and conservation, resulting in demonstration of water and soil conservation function of forests, in more advance and sustainable manner.
About agricultural activities, in line with the Long-term Plan of Agricultural Land Improvement Projects currently reformed to harmonizing with environment, the projects for irrigation/drainage systems and communities in rural area have been implemented for sustaining the sound water circulation systems, improving water quality and ecosystem, and restoring environmentally sound rural area.
iv) Ecosystem Approach in the Development of Water Resources
In the development of water resources, environmental consideration has been promoted in the construction of large facilities. In tackling with the security of environment, the government implemented the measures for the safety of water, measurement of its effect and monitoring of its impact to the environment in order to protect endangering bird of preys, channels for fishes.