Infrastructure is one of the most important things to support our life, especially regarding water. There are some differences between Perth and Kagoshima. This page describes the water and infrastructure of Kagoshima city.
The Rain
Protection from Weather Disasters
Water Quality
Power Plants
The Rain
In Kagoshima, it rains a lot more than in Perth, so we have a lot of water resources. We don’t worry about depletion and there is no rule about sprinklers or water use.
The annual average amount of rain in Kagoshima is 2265 mm. (Perth has 807 mm/year.)
Protection from weather disasters
Kagoshima has a lot of rain and typhoons. Typhoons come to Kagoshima 4 or 5 times every year on average and peak from July to October. Very rarely, it causes a horrible disaster. For example, power outage, floods, and the collapse of roads and houses. However, don’t worry. Not only in Kagoshima but also in the Kyushu area, we have especially good measures against flood disasters. There’s good sewage management. There are embankments and breakwaters everywhere. Besides, we have 2 dams. These are used to prevent flood disasters and to store water.
Water Quality
In Kagoshima, the rate of water supply penetration is 100%. We can drink clean water anywhere and at a low cost.
There are some differences in the way tap water is produced between Kagoshima and Perth.
Perth’s desalination process
- Remove the large debris from seawater using a filter.
- Remove the small particles with pressure. (It can remove the salt and so on.)
- Kill bacteria with chlorine.
Thanks to this process, this water doesn’t contain as many minerals as Kagoshima water, so it is more pure.The cost of this process is very economical. If we provide a family of four with desalinated water for one day, it costs the same amount of energy as using an air conditioner for one hour.
Kagoshima’s Shirasu Plateau
60% of Kagoshima sits on a shirasu plateau. The rain that falls on the Shirasu base quickly penetrates into the ground. The water goes through the shirasu plateau and is used to supply tap water. The water has a lot of minerals.
We use two sources of clean water in Kagoshima.
・From rivers ・From underground
The water from the river or from underground is filtered to remove sand and large debris. It is then treated with chemicals and filtered again and finally stored in water tanks.
Power plants
We also use water for energy. There are 3 Hydroelectric power plants, Kogashira, Koyamada, and Takafu plants. These output as much as 660 kW of electricity in total. They can power about 200 households.
