Báo Nhật Bản viết về chuyến thăm của Phái đoàn quốc tế 23 nước: Governmentofficials from 23 countries made an inspection to learn about rehabilitation in Higashi Matsushima city Participants are listening to an explanation about Mega Solar constructed on the flooded land. (Higashi Matsushima city, Miyagi Prefecture) A group of the people from 23 countries, visiting Japan to learn Japanese advanced environmental cities, made an inspection of HigashiMatsushima city in Miyagi prefecture destroyed by the Great East Japan Earthquake, on the 23rd. Japan International Cooperation Agency, JICA, invited 40 governmental officialsbeing responsible for city development in their respective countries. Disaster rehabilitation plansof some parts of the area setting a goal of the utilization of renewable energy, which have been materialized and are gathering attention from foreign countries as construction sites of environmental cities. In Nobiru area in HigashiMatsushima citydestroyed by tsunami disaster, weeds and puddles formed by subsidence are drawing attention. In the field there is a large scale photovoltaic power generation, Mega Solar, constructed by Mitsui Co.,Ltd. The 40 participantspointed cameras at the solar panels and askeda lot of questions to a city official through an interpreter. Responding to a question by a female participants regarding financing for the relocation project, an official from Higashi Matsushima city post-disaster reconstruction bureau explained about a system with which rents for housing lands can be reduced for an extended period for the people who were affected by the disaster. Looking at the lands in front of them which were totally flooded the official went on to say that such lands are utilized for energy generation projects in order to keep the land prices from falling.All the participants were listening to the explanation in a serious manner, as the city official explained about the policy to make relocation of residents in case of a future disaster. JICA participants are scheduled to visit Kitakyushu and Tokyo, in addition to HigashiMatsushima during their 1 week stay in Japan.Representatives from Asia, Middle East, Central and South America have gathered here for training.Majority of the participants are directors, heads of departments in charge of urban planning in local government.After lecturers introducing disaster damage and reconstruction projects, the group visited the venues for Mega Solar Power Generation and sorting of disaster debris. Mr. Monge, the Minister of Housing and Human Settlement of Costa Rica participated in the visit to the site. He expressed the impression about the visit,“Unexpected incident happened even in the country with high level of education and technology. I am surprised with the resilience of Japanese people making an effort at reconstruction.” Mr. H. Abe, Higashi Matsushima City Mayor appealed the lesson of the disaster and said,“It is important to deal with the situation withtop down approach by a leader in a time of disaster while bottom up based on the agreement by citizens is required for the success of reconstruction.” People from other countries have been visiting to the disaster affected sites since soon after the disaster. Recently there is great interest in reconstruction projects of disaster affected areas which start a new urban development from scratch. The Miyagi Prefecture official says that the prefecture receives several delegations from foreign countries and ambassadors to Japan every month to visit disaster areas. These visits are good opportunities to transmit the information to the world regarding the urban development for reconstruction as well as to bring benefits to local businesses such as hotels and restaurants.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 14:59:08 +0000