Water for Urban Areas (UNU, 2000, 243 p.): 2. Water management in Metropolitan Tokyo: History of waterworks in Tokyo: Early water supply systems

Water for Urban Areas (UNU, 2000, 243 p.)

2. Water management in Metropolitan Tokyo

History of waterworks in Tokyo

		Early water supply systems
		Opening of modern waterworks
		The Ogouchi Dam project
		War damage and the increase in water leakage
		Serious water shortage in 1964
		Development of water resources in the upper Tone River basin

Early water supply systems

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the city of Edo was already equipped with comprehensive water supply systems that did not exist even in Europe. This was one foundation of the prosperity of Edo that has lasted for nearly 300 years. In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered Okubo Fujigoro to draw up a master plan for a water supply system, and, based on this master plan, part of the Kanda Canal was completed. In 1654, the Tama River Canal, with a length of 43 km, was completed by using the Tama River, running west of Edo. It became possible to supply water continuously to the centre of the Edo area and its vicinity. These excellent water systems were based on what one might call classical technologies. They depended not on pumps but on the skilful use of gravity flow, and the water was not sterilized. A rough chronological table of waterworks in Tokyo is shown in table 2.1.

Table 2.1 History of waterworks in Tokyo

1590	Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Edo Shogunate, commissioned Okubo Fujigoro to carry out a survey and draw up a master plan; partial completion of the Kanda Canal
1654	Completion of the Tamagawa Canal
1898	Yodobashi Purification Plant started operating
1923	Facilities badly damaged in the Great Kanto earthquake
1924	Sakai Purification Plant started operating
1926	Completion of Kanamachi Purification Plant
1934	Completion of Yamaguchi Reservoir
1938	Construction of Ogouchi Dam started
1945	Facilities devastated in World War II
1957	Completion of Ogouchi Dam (Tama River system)
1959	Nagasawa Purification Plant started operating
1960	Higashi-Murayama Purification Plant started operating
1964	Great water shortage in the Tama River system; water distribution cut by max.50%
1965	Abolition of Yodobashi Purification Plant because of the Shinjuku Suburbanization Plan
1966	Asaka Purification Plant started operating
1967	Completion of Yagisawa Dam (Tone River system)
1968	Completion of Shimokubo Dam (Tone River system)
	Completion of Tone Diversion Weir and Musashi Canal
1970	Ozaku Purification Plant started operating
	Intake stopped from Tamagawa Purification Plant
1971	Completion of Tone Estuary Barrage
1975	Misono Purification Plant started operating
1976	Completion of Kusaki Dam (Tone River system)
1985	Misato Purification Plant started operating
1991	Completion of Naramata Dam (Tone River system)
1992	Completion of 1st Stage of Advanced Water Purification Treatment Facility in Kanamachi Purification Plant
	Completion of Tamagawa Cold Water Countermeasure Facility

Source: Bureau of Waterworks (1994).