By KANA INAGAKI
URAYASU, Japan—More than a month after the devastating earthquake hit northern Japan, hundreds of residents in an upscale bedroom community near Tokyo still don't have functioning plumbing, causing the city's mayor to lash out at the national and prefectural governments for not responding quickly enough.
Associated Press
Soil liquefaction pushed manholes out of the ground in Urayasu.
But when the earthquake struck on March 11, the city, which is also home to Tokyo Disneyland, quickly sank into the ground and became submerged in mud, partly because 75% of it sits on reclaimed land. Tens of thousands of residents in this city with a population of 165,000 were deprived of water and natural gas for weeks following the quake. Tilted houses, warped roads and popped-up manholes are now strewn across the dust-covered city. As of Wednesday, about 140 households remain without running water in Chiba prefecture, while nearly 300 households in Urayasu are unable to shower or flush toilets due to broken or clogged sewage pipes.
Located about 190 miles south of the earthquake's epicenter, Urayasu was spared the tsunami but much of the wreckage was caused by soil liquefaction, which occurs when soil loses its strength because of an applied stress such as a temblor. The stress can be exacerbated in soft-clay soils and landfill areas.
No deaths were reported from the earthquake in Urayasu, where no apartment buildings collapsed. Tokyo Disneyland, which has been closed since the earthquake due to parking-lot damage and power shortages, is set to reopen Friday.
Kunie Fukuda, 64-year-old owner of a hair salon in Urayasu, said life without water had been hard, but she added the daily inconveniences pale in comparison to the sufferings in northern Japan. "We're right next to Tokyo so I didn't think it would take this long," she said.
"Both the national and prefectural governments have dragged their feet. We have been hit with rolling blackouts three times despite the fact that our area was affected by the disaster," said Hideki Matsuzaki, mayor of Urayasu, in an interview.
"They don't see or feel our pain," he said, though adding the city will need all the government and prefectural aid it can get to address the widespread liquefaction damage. Mr. Matsuzaki said the city estimates costs to repair basic infrastructure to reach at least ¥73.4 billion ($880 million), eclipsing its annual budget of ¥61.1 billion ($730 million). While the city will aim to complete emergency repair of the sewage system by Friday, he said it will take more than three years to fully restore and improve the infrastructure.
American Steve Marshall, a 45-year-old professional magician who has lived in Urayasu for 13 years, said he was thinking of moving back to Florida with his Japanese wife and two children after all his performances were canceled following the quake. "When I saw the black mud coming out, I knew this wasn't right. It was weird," he said. "Every time an earthquake comes, my heart will start pumping and my adrenaline will shoot up."
Mr. Marshall may not be alone in choosing to leave the city. A local real-estate agent said the company has received several cancellations of leases by South Koreans and Chinese, which make up the largest segment of the city's 3,800 foreigners.
Experts said another anticipated fallout from the liquefaction is a decline in Urayasu's property prices. Despite being known for soft grounds, the city has regularly ranked among the most popular Japanese residential areas, favored by young couples and relatively affluent families. From March to September, Takashi Ishizawa, a real-estate analyst at Mizuho Securities Co., projects the city's land prices to decline as much as 10% from a year earlier. In 2010, prices went up 1.1%, compared with a 2.7% decline in residential areas nationwide.
The road to full recovery will be long. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, much of the electricity, gas and water were cut off in many districts across Chiba prefecture. Civil engineers said the magnitude of the quake, measuring 9.0, and repeated aftershocks accelerated the spread of liquefaction.
Susumu Yasuda, a professor at Tokyo Denki University, said that codes for sewage systems that address liquefaction were introduced in Japan only in 1981, which left older reclaimed land areas such as Urayasi—where the first construction began in 1964—vulnerable.
In neighboring Narashino, the liquefaction-damaged city has asked its residents to use only 75% of the available water at least until June, advising them, for example, to use plastic wraps over their plates to avoid washing them.
"We need as much money as possible, but it's hard to clear all the government standards to receive it," city official Haruo Suzuki said. He added that current reconstruction funds are limited since they can be used only to restore infrastructure to pre-disaster conditions, rather than for an upgrade.
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