Kawabe River - Itsuki & Sagara Villages, Kumamoto |
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Kawabe River, Sagaramura, (July 2000). Photos by Todd Stradford |
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This pristine valley is scheduled to be flooded by the building of a new dam in Sagara Village, despite opposition by ten NGOs, the majority of farmers, and ayu fishermen. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation (MLIT) along with construction companies and politicians who have received large contributions, are now attempting to take away the legal fishing rights of the fishermen under the Eminent Domain law, the same law that allows land to be condemned for the building of schools and other public works. However, this is the first time that an attempt to take away constitutionally guaranteed rights has occurred. Itsuki is famous for its clear waters as well as the Itsuki Komoriuta, the Itsuki Lullaby. The decision is still pending (November 2003). Update: 16 September 2005. The MLIT, under pressure from an unsuccessful decision on determining a new water-use blueprint due to the 2003 Fukuoka court loss, decided to drop the application filed in 2001 to revoke the fishing rights of the Kawabe citizens. If they had continued in their pursuit of revoking the rights, they would have had to begin the legal process of building the dam from the very beginning, taking the process back to 1966. Either way is a major setback to building the dam, which MLIT still maintains is necessary for flood control. |
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Artists' rendition of the new dam in Sagaramura. |
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Actual dam site in Sagaramura looking upstream. (14 June 2004) |
A rebuilt Itsuki, high on the slopes above the old site. (14 June 2004) |
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Concrete pads and a few buildings
are all that is left of the original village of Itsuki. This
will be all underwater if the dam is built. |
Demolished Itsuki looking toward Ootori-toge.
On the right is one of the 4 hydroelectric plants that will be demolished. |
 Driveway to nowhere in flattened Itsuki. (6 June 2005) |
 Lower Itsuki looking toward the new Itsuki on the hill. (6 June 2005) |
 Dam construction upstream from the dam site. (6 June 2005) |
 High and junior high school construction below the new and above the old village of Itsuki. (9 June 2006) |
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The new dam will produce less electricity than the 4 separate hydroelectric plants are already producing combined. The temperature of the water below the dam will fall 2° to 3° C which will keep the ayu sweetfish from growing to its present shakuayu size (30cm). The dam will also destroy ayu habitat, decreasing numbers. The floods of 1964, 1965, and 1966 occurred after large scale clear cutting of the forests. Since that time the forests are better managed, increasing infiltration rates for rain and decreasing runoff that causes flooding. Farmers downstream do not want to pay the higher costs for water from the new dam. In June 2003, they won an appeal in the Fukuoka High Court stating that they were misrepresented by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries & Forestry in their desire for this water. This victory puts the building of the dam on temporary hold. However, as the removal of the village above can be seen, all secondary construction works are going on as if the dam will be built, including diversion tunnels and hydro intakes, all of which turn the landscape into concrete and deforested scars. |
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