‫ە‬Messages from Departments and Centers of NILIMTo operation of public infrastructurein the age of world unity
HORIE Nobuyuki,
Director of the Water Quality Control Department(Key Words) Sewage system, energy, global warming, B-DASH, international standardIntroduction
Average soil cover: 2.9m
 Information from around the world is transmitted
instantaneously not only by TV, but over the internet,
most food products and miscellaneous day-to-day
goods are imported and their share is growing,Japanese corporations are beginning to procure
supplies overseas and place priority on hiringforeigners, and English is becoming an official
Conventional construction method
Exposed pipe construction method
language.
Figure 1. Exposed Pipes
On the other hand, a prolonged economic slump has
been accompanied by tightening financial restraints
both at the national government and local level, and in
2. Revolution in wastewater treatment technologiesMore than half of the population of Japanregions where the population is declining and society
discharges sanitary water into Tokyo Bay and otheraging, concern regarding the maintenance and renewal
closed bodies of water, but the percentage of theof the public infrastructure which supports daily life
population served by sewage systems performing
and economic activities has become a real problem.
advanced treatment of sewage is very low at onlyThis report introduces trends in sewage systems as
16.9% (end of FY2008), and the percentage of treatedtheir operators search for ways to contribute
sewage which is now reused stands at a mere 1.4% ofinternationally such as through measures to counterall treated sewage.
global warming, and to encourage domestic growth The most common sewage treatment method in use
while lowering the costs of constructing, operating,is the activated sludge method which employs
and renewing their facilities in modern society, whichmicroorganisms, but replacing facilities to introduce
is now in the midst of a process of international
more advanced facilities while continuing to operateunification.
treatment plants on narrow sites in urban districts is adaunting task. The revolutionary “membrane treatment
1. For cheaper and faster improvement of pipelines
technology”, which is not only compact, but can also
The cost of providing pipelines generally accounts
easily obtain immediately reusable high water quality,
for 60% to 70% of the total cost of a sewerage system,
is now spreading worldwide.
which consists of pipelines and treatment plants.
 Japanese manufacturers supply a huge share of theThrough the efforts of our predecessors, theworld market for the membranes, but they are only usednationwide sewered population has reached 73.7%
at about 10 small scale sewage plants in Japan. In order(end of FY2009), and the sewered population plus theto make a big contribution to promoting the application
percentage which treats sanitary sewage using septicof this method to deteriorated facility reconstruction andtanks etc. has risen to 85.7% (end of FY2009), but
renewal projects in large cities and to satellite treatment
in water demand regions, the Advance of Japan Ultimate
neither service is available in districts with a total
Membranebioreactor technology Project (A-JUMP), a
population of 18 million people. So in FY2006, thenational government financed project to prepare
Sewage System Quick Project, a social experimentguidelines to proving and introducing the method at large
regarding technologies to lay pipelines cheaply andtreatment plants was inaugurated in FY2009 with thequickly, was kicked off. The Wastewater Control
cooperation of corporations and regional governments.
Department of the NILIM is contributing to theTo cut the energy used for aeration needed to prevent
selection of diverse technologies such as exposed
filter clogging and to tackle a variety of problems which
pipelines, which are placed on the ground surface
arise when introducing the method at an existing plant,
instead of underground (Fig. 1), through social
the NILIM is serving as a member of the projectexperiments to test such technologies, and, reporting
administrative office to revise existing guidelines in lighton their findings, by providing technical support forof new knowledge which is being continually obtained.
technology evaluations, and so on.These efforts are counted on rapidly expanding its
introduction to large-scale plants in Japan.

‫ە‬Messages from Departments and Centers of NILIM

3. Using sewage sludge to create resources andenergy and fight global warming The next topic is sewage sludge formerly buried inlandfill as industrial waste material. Throughstrenuous efforts of various kinds, the recycling rate ofthis sewage sludge has been increased to 78% (as ofFY2008), but the rate of use as biomass taking
advantage of its organic constituent has stopped atonly 23% (as of FY2008). Treating wastewater
consumes nearly 1% of all energy use in Japan,
focusing national attention on this field oftechnologies because of the recent soaring cost ofenergy, project and maintenance costs, and theimportance of measures to counter global warming.
The LOTUS (Lead to Outstanding Technology forUtilization of Sludge) Project, which was inaugurated
in FY2004 to achieve two goals, (1) reuse is cheaper
than disposal and (2) generating electricity is cheaper
than buying electricity, is developing practicaltechnologies such as technology to recover, dry, andcarbonize biogas (methane) to form solid fuelbriquettes by a digestion (fermentation) process. InFY2011, the project had selected and verified
technology which has sharply cut the cost ofconstruction and substantially lowered greenhouseeffect gases through energy recovery, and led by theNILIM, is now preparing for the large scale guideline
enactment project, B-DASH (Breakthrough by
Dynamic Approach in Sewage High TechnologyProject).
These projects are counted on to develop sewage
systems which function as urban infrastructure
contributing to the environment in the areas of bothresource recycling and of energy.
4. Maintaining and using existing systems The era when infrastructure provided rapidly during
the era of high speed economic growth and various
other parts of our public capital must undergo
full-scale renewal is near at hand. With limited
finances and personnel, we are concerned with theneed to decide how to make predictions and reachrepair or reconstruction decisions in order to performsystematic stock management.
 While facing problems such as road surfaces caving
in above deteriorated water mains, the Sewage
Pipeline Service Life Extension Support System wasinaugurated in FY2008 as a national government
subsidized project. Under this system, service lifetime
extension plans enacted for sewage system projects
nationwide are now in progress with their completion
scheduled for FY2012. The NILIM has beencollecting and analyzing nationwide data concerning
pipelines, resulting in the completion in 2007 of theBasic Concepts of Stock Management in Sewage
System Projects (Draft) and the preparation of the, still
incomplete, Handbook of Stock Management ofSewage System Projects.

5. Aggressively responding to internationalstandards
Table 1. Trends Related to International Standards
Name
TC224: Used for potable water supply
and sewerage services
TC138: Plastic pipe for transporting fluids
PC253: To reuse treated waste water as
irrigation water
TC255: Biogas
PC251: Asset management

International standard
ISO24510-2
ISO4435, 8773, etc.
Being prepared
Being prepared
Being prepared The Water Quality Control Department took part in
the first meeting of ISO/PC251 held in Melbourne
from February 28 to March 4 to prepare proposedinternational standards for asset management
including overall social infrastructure in various areas.
Two working groups (WG) were established todiscuss the contents at the same time as they agreed ona three-year standardization schedule. The next
meeting will be held in October in Washington.
 Public projects above a certain scale are alreadyrequired to make procurements applying internationalrules under a WTO Agreement, but the international
standards, ISO etc. which require compliance withdomestic regulations and standards are being enacted
one after another for various kinds of hard and soft
public capital.
 And in the public water supply and sewage systemfields, the 2007 ISO/TC224 General Meeting (Tokyo),enacted international standards for drinking water andsewage services and decided to begin the task ofenacting new international standards for assets and forcrisis management, signaling the arrival of the age
when the ISO has gained full-scale influence overdomestic standards. Other related trends have begun as
shown in Table 1.
 With the ISO style, in which a core group formed
through voluntary participation actually decides on
proposals, if we do not detect trends and leap directly
into discussions, we can be left in the position ofhaving to comply with predetermined results. We
advocate an aggressive response through the national
government’s intellectual property strategy.
Conclusions
 In neighboring Asia, a population several tens aslarge as Japan’s is continuing high speed economicgrowth. Private sector companies now play a majorrole in infrastructure projects in Japan. It is essentialthat while creating new procedures on one hand, we
also reliably predict technologies etc. in order thatpublic services, which must never cease to operate,continue to function at appropriate levels. We aredetermined to respond nimbly to high speed changearound the world by appropriately determining
regional needs and adopting a long-term perspective.