Madam, – Years of investment by the Japanese government in extensive protection systems to minimise the predicted effect of a tsunami or earthquake, while not preventing the event, undoubtedly limited its impact and averted an even greater loss of life, currently estimated in excess of 10,000. By comparison, the December 2004 earthquake and tsunami of similar intensity that hit Indonesia, resulted in over 230,000 deaths.
The nation of Japan is to be greatly commended for their state of readiness in anticipation of predictable catastrophic natural events such as earthquakes and tsunamis which have hit the country on many occasions.
It should be pointed out that much of the capital investment was committed by successive Japanese governments over the past 10 years during a particularly lengthy period of recession for their country.
Sadly in our own country, successive governments have ignored the need for implementing a major programme of engineering infrastructure so as to secure and deliver, for example, a reliable water supply network throughout the country in advance of the intended installation of domestic water meters.
Engineering studies and reports, with strong recommendations, lie ignored on government department shelves while the Midlands of Ireland are flooded each winter and cities such as Galway and Cork fall victim to major flooding events as a result of existing preventative measures being totally inadequate.
At a time when the engineering profession has been decimated due to the collapse of the economy and highly skilled engineers have been forced to emigrate, many indigenous Irish practices that we represent would warmly welcome the opportunity to participate in such a programme.
It is to be hoped that our new government will have the foresight to invest in our creaking infrastructure, before we become the victims yet again of the now accepted pattern of increasing extreme weather events on the fringe of Western Europe. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In 1988, two Tokyo-based earthquake prediction scientists from the Association for the Development of Earthquake Prediction, Tokyo, published an article in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America(June 1988; v. 78; no. 3; p. 1268-1278) entitled "Tsunami hazard probability in Japan".
In the scientific abstract of the article the following was stated, in relation to an evaluation of a ten-year period 2000 to 2010: “It seems that the probability for a violent tsunami, of which the wave height exceeds 5m, is highest along the Pacific coast in central Japan, reaching a value of 41 per cent.” Given this scientifically predicted high risk of a violent tsunami, what actions did the Japanese nucelar industry take since 1988 to improve the resilience of their coastal nuclear facilities against such a catastrophe? Not enough, it seems. – Yours, etc,