So Mori sent ministers to Kyushu to mollify locals and authorized no-interest loans from a fund meant to help farmers hit by natural disasters. It's a predictable side-effect of the LDP's addiction to expensive and often useless public works in this case, the Isahaya Bay Land Reclamation Project. It consists of a 7-km dike through coastal waters, turning what was Japan's largest tideland into reclaimed farmland. The drainage gate was completed in 1997, isolating the innermost section from the rest of the bay. The venture is a textbook case of what is wrong with the government's obsession with public works as a means of stimulating the economy and winning votes.
Cost effectiveness is dismal.
Draining tideland doesn't just deny lots of birds their habitat. The lack of natural tidal flow causes sludge and other muck to accumulate. That kills off shrimp, shellfish and other bottom-feeders. Without them, plankton proliferates, sucking up the nutrients from the sea and leaving little for seaweed to feed on. Fishermen warn that the Ariake will become a dead sea unless the dikes are opened to restore normal flows.