Changes of domestic water supply and drainage systems in mountainous area:
a case study of the Kumatsugi district, a ski area, of Sekinomiya Town,
Hyogo Prefecture.
YAJIMA Iwao@Part-time lecturer, Kansai University.
keywords: domestic water, domestic wastewater, small scale water supply,
household purification tank (johkasou), ski tourism, Sekinomiya Town, Hyogo Prefecture
Summary
The Kumatsugi district of Sekinomiya Town, Hyogo Prefecture, is
a depopulated ski area which is located on the east of Chugoku Mountains.
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the developing process of domestic
water supply and drainage systems in the Kumatsugi district, and to make
clear the factors which affected the process.
In the second half of the 1950s, the residents of each settlement
in the Kumatsugi district constructed their own small-scale water supply
facilities. The purpose was to improve their standard of living.
From the first half of the 1960s to the first half of the 1970s,
ski tourism developed in the Kumatsugi district and tourist accommodation
increased in many settlements. The residents reinforced their water supply
as the need for accommodation increased. The settlements which had no proper
water source were given water supply facilities by the Sekinomiya municipal
government or were eventually included in one of the facilities of other
districts.
From the second half of the 1970s to the second half of the
1980s, the flush toilet replaced the older Japanese toilets in the developed
settlements. Sewage was treated by means of household purification tank
(johkasou) for night soil. The sources of water supply in these settlements were
reinforced for the increasing use of flush toilets. However, water pollution
in the Kumatsugi district became more serious because untreated wastewater
was being discharged and the treatment ability of household purification
tank (johkasou) for night soil were unsatisfactory.
Since the first half of the 1990s, many businesses have gone
bankrupt. In the settlement in which the ski business is declining, residents
accepted a proposal to construct a municipal water supply and sewage facility.
In the most developed settlement, a small-scale sewage system was constructed
by the municipal government as water pollution became serious. There is
no municipal water supply now. The settlements, where most of the tourist
accommodation buisiness close down, had to depend on the municipal water
supply and sewage facilities were constructed.
In short, due to the development of ski tourism in many settlements
of the Kumatsugi district, the water supply and drainage systems in those
settlements are superior to the others. That is, the development of ski
tourism contributed to the progress of those systems. However, this interrupted
the introduction of municipal water supplies and sewerage facilities in
all settlements. Consequently, the water was more polluted in the Kumatsugi
district than in other districts.
(c) The Human Gegraphical Society of Japan 2004
To the map of former Sekinomiya Town (Yabu City since Apr. 2004)