Villagers’ needs
June
Iwate Nippo Online News, June 15th, 2011
“Villagers start organization to relocate village to higher elevations”
Inhabitants in the Tahama area of Ryori village, Ofunato city have formed a local organization that plans to relocate the village to the higher elevations. The villagers have done their best to prevent the collapse of the village through preventing survivors leaving en masse. They need the government’s support to realize the plan, but serious questions have been raised in regards to the slow reactions of the government.
There used to be 63 households in the Tahama area. According to the leader of the area, Takahiro Sato, the tsunami waves swept away 22 houses, and 8 villagers were killed. Tahama was also seriously affected by tsunamis in the Meiji and Showa eras.
Looking upon the damaged land, people are worried about losing their village. Board members had a meeting in June to discuss the possibility of the relocation of the village. Other villagers joined another meeting on June 12 and the idea was agreed upon.
In the meeting, the following points were discussed:
・Move the infrastructure of the flooded areas to higher elevations
・Place value on “community”
・Create good environments for the fisheries industry
・Lighten the economic burden placed on villages who lost their houses
They still have to come up with more definite plans in the future but are hoping to receive some financial support from the government.
One fisherman staying in a temporary house said, “Though my house was spared from damage by tsunami waves in the Meiji era, it was fully destroyed this time. As there are both mountains and sea in Tahama, people should live on the hills and the factories can be built by the sea.” Ninety percent of villagers here in Tahama have fishery-related jobs.
One city official said, “The agreement of the villagers is really important for us in our decision-making process, since the lay of the land is different from area to area. We’d also like to promote the rebuilding with the co-operation of the central government.”
The villagers have agreed upon the basic residential area relocation plan. However, it will require a large amount of finance and the government’s attitude is still very vague.
Mr. Sato said, “Prompt action is required, as some villagers are not able to wait so long and might move to another area. We have to co-operate with the government but seeing them so slow to act is very frustrating.”
