Municipal workers in Japan yesterday struggled to restore the water supply in a flood-hit western region one week after inundation caused by a record downpour killed more than 200 people in the country’s worst weather disaster in 36 years.
Communities that grappled with rising floodwaters last week now find themselves battling scorching summer temperatures well above 30°C, as foul-smelling garbage piles up in mud-splattered streets.
“We need the water supply back,” said Hiroshi Oka, 40, a resident helping to clean up the Mabi District in one of the hardest-hit areas, the city of Kurashiki, where more than 200,000 households have gone without water for a week.
Photo: Reuters
“What we are getting is a thin stream of water, and we can’t flush toilets or wash our hands,” he said, standing over a 20 liter plastic tank that was only partly filled after almost four hours of waiting.
Water supply has been restored to some parts of the district, a city official told reporters, but he did not know when normal operation would resume, as engineers are still trying to locate water pipeline ruptures.
The soaring temperatures have fueled concern that residents, many still in temporary evacuation centers, might have heat strokes or contract illnesses as hygiene levels deteriorate.
Public broadcaster Japan Broadcasting Corp has provided advice on coping with high temperatures and maintaining hygiene, such as a video tutorial on how to make a diaper from a towel and a plastic shopping bag.
More than 70,000 military personnel, police and firefighters have fanned out to tackle the aftermath of the floods.
There have been 204 deaths, with dozens of people still missing, the government said.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga urged people in flood-hit areas to take precautions against the heat and guard against thunderstorms.
“People still need to be aware of the possibility of further landslides,” Suga told a regular news conference yesterday.
Severe weather has increasingly battered Japan in the past few years, including floods last year that killed dozens, raising questions about the effects of global warming.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who canceled a scheduled overseas trip to deal with the rescue effort, visited Kurashiki on Thursday and said that he aimed to visit other flood-damaged areas yesterday and over the weekend.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to