Four years ago, much of Japan’s northeastern coastline destroyed by the magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The disaster saw large-scale power blackout, three moderate meltdowns at
the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, more than 18,000 people killed, and
it caused damages to the country estimated to be worth about US$34 billion.
Japanese leaders said, this plan will create jobs and has received support from party
backers in big business and construction. The project may reduce some
damage from future tsunamis, but it may also encourage people living
along coastlines.
The plan of worth $6.8 billion will link 440 sections of wall together to form a
400-kilometre-long (250-mile) wall that in some places will stand more
than 12-metres-tall. That's about the size of a four-storey building.
The Associated Press reports
that opponents say the walls will damage marine ecosystems, prove
detrimental to fisheries, and will actually do little to protect
residents in these areas, who are still advised to move to higher ground
in the event of an earthquake rather than waiting to see if the walls
will hold.
"The safest thing is for people to live on higher ground and for
people's homes and their workplaces to be in separate locations. If we
do that, we don't need to have a 'Great Wall," Tsuneaki Iguchi, who was
mayor of Iwanuma, a town inundated by the 2011 tsunami, told the Associated Press.
Source: Associated Press
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