Sasebo asks for help with drought

Sasebo asks for help with drought
By Travis J. Tritten and Hana Kusumoto, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, November 3, 2007

SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — Sasebo city is asking the U.S. Navy for help as an impending drought threatens public water supplies.

A lack of rainfall over the past two months has caused reservoir levels to drop, and the current water supplies might last just 50 days, according to the city water utility office.

On Monday, the city and Sasebo Naval Base will convene a drought management council to discuss rainfall predictions and measures to avoid rationing water.

“The City will ask the CFAS (Commander, Fleet Activities Sasebo) to conserve the water usage and will show the water rationing plan at the meeting,” Tadahito Tokunaga of the naval base public works department wrote in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes.

The city hopes voluntary conservation efforts from the Navy base and other large water consumers will be enough to stave off a shortage, waterworks bureau official Sadayoshi Emoto said.

“We are in a tough situation,” Emoto said. “We hope to discuss measures in a way so that we don’t have to ration water.”


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