Where Does Water Flow Between the Sea and the Mountains: Wakayama and Tokushima Prefectures' Delayed Sewerage System Development Reflects the State of the Region (1970s-1990s)

Where Does Water Flow Between the Sea and the Mountains: Wakayama and Tokushima Prefectures' Delayed Sewerage System Development Reflects the State of the Region (1970s-1990s)
Behind the fact that Wakayama and Tokushima prefectures remained among the lowest in Japan in terms of sewerage system penetration in the 1980s and 1990s was not a simple administrative delay, but a complex interplay of three factors: geography, lifestyle, and policy unique to the region. Wakayama Prefecture is dominated by the Kii Mountains, and its towns are scattered like dots along the coastline. Tokushima, on the other hand, had many mountainous areas, except for the Yoshino River basin, and its population was widely dispersed. In such a topography, it would cost a great deal of money to build an area-wide or reticulated sewerage system like those in urban areas, and the effects of the system would not appear all at once as they do in urban areas. It can be said that the topography itself dictated the speed of institutional development.
Since the 1970s, the government's sewerage policy has given priority to large cities. The densely populated metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya were given first priority, with rural mountainous areas taking a backseat. For municipalities with small budgets, the concentration of government subsidies in urban areas was a major obstacle, delaying the start of construction in Wakayama and Tokushima prefectures. In both prefectures, the use of combined septic tanks was widespread from an early stage. Septic tanks could be installed in individual houses or villages, and were a reasonable alternative to sewage systems in mountainous areas. The national government also recommended septic tanks as a policy in line with local realities at the time, and as a result, the sewerage penetration rate appeared numerically low.
Industrial structure also had an impact. Wakayama Prefecture was home to large-scale steel, chemical, and paper manufacturing plants, and industrial wastewater was handled in dedicated treatment facilities, which were separate from the maintenance of domestic wastewater. As a result, the water environment measures of the prefecture as a whole were not uniformly reflected in the sewerage system penetration rate. In Tokushima, investment in sewage systems was a relatively low priority because the textile and agricultural processing industries were the mainstays of the city, and urbanization was gradual.
According to Ministry of the Environment data and municipal histories, the challenge for Wakayama and Tokushima during this period was the structural reality that urban infrastructure could not be transplanted directly to the rural areas. In a region where mountains loom, rivers carve deep, and people live like dots facing the sea, the fate of water itself is completely different from that of cities. The 8% and 9% sewerage system penetration rates are not a result of delay, but rather the result of a different form of water management that was chosen to suit the land.