Resources for International Cooperation

  • Evaluation
    • Japan continued to make strong efforts in the 1990s to achieve its water management objectives. It also made progress in following up on several recommendations of the 1994 EPR.
    • Human health-related water quality standards for 26 chemical groups are largely respected in freshwater and marine water bodies. Compliance with water quality standards related to the living environment in rivers has continued to improve gradually; it reached 81.5% for BOD in 1999.
    • River control practices have begun to take account of the needs of aquatic species and the growing demand by citizens for river-based amenities.
    • It has not wholly met the objectives of its sewerage construction programme and remains well behind those OECD countries that are the most advanced in terms of municipal wastewater treatment; at the current rate of progress it may be another 15 years before it catches up.
    • The water quality status of lakes and enclosed coastal waters has shown no significant improvement for a considerable period. Eutrophication persists as one of the country's most serious water quality problems, and the frequency of red and blue "tides" has not diminished noticeably.
    • Japan has been slow to respond to the need to reduce nutrient loads to receiving waters, particularly in terms of diffuse sources such as agriculture.
    • The presence of hazardous chemicals (e.g. trichloroethylene) in aquifers poses problems for drinking water supply utilities, and nitrogen-related standards in groundwater are exceeded in 5% of observations.
    • Japanese water legislation needs a more integrated approach. In particular, Japan needs to integrate quantity and quality management better and to move further towards an approach based on entire river basins.
  • Recommendations
    It is recommended to:
    • consolidate the body of water-related laws into coherent legislation integrating quantity and quality management and taking a whole river basin approach;
    • take additional measures to expedite implementation of sewerage construction programmes (e.g. expanding advanced treatment infrastructure, improving combined sewer overflows); further increase the application of the polluter pays and user pays principles; consider a possible role for public-private partnerships towards this end;
    • strengthen implementation of nutrient reduction measures for lakes, bays and inland seas, in particular regarding diffuse sources such as agriculture;
    • strengthen the control of substances hazardous to human health and ecosystems, through cleaner production, effluent control, pesticide regulation and groundwater protection;
    • streamline the water quality classification system and include ecological water quality criteria;
    • continue to actively pursue the restoration of river habitats to near-natural state and extend stakeholder participation in river management to more river basins.