Fishermen disagree with dam construction plan, a blow to government

Fishermen in Kumamoto Prefecture rejected a government proposal for
compensation for the construction of a dam on the Kawabe River, the Kuma
River's upper stream in Kyushu in Southern Japan, a project the government
started offered 35 years ago.

At an emergency meeting on November 28, members of the Kuma River
Fishermen's Cooperative discussed the Land, Infrastructure, and Transport
Ministry's compensation plan, and turned it down, saying that the dam plan
will not help develop the area, but will rather do harm to their fishing.

The disapproval indicates how strong public criticism is of the plan.
Local residents say the planned dam is not useful. This has put further
pressure on the government to give up on new dam plans.

Of the 1,800 members of the cooperative, 1,505 fishers (including those
who entrusted the chair with their votes) attended the meeting. On the
proposal as to whether the cooperative will receive 1.65 billion yen in
compensation for the dam construction, the cooperative's executive board,
which supports the proposal, failed to get the support of at least
two-thirds of the members, the minimum requirement.

Maintaining that Kawabe's dam will help inirrigating a large area, the
government has attempted to get the cooperative's approval of the
compensation plan. If accepted, the construction of the dam was to start
soon.

It is said that the government is examining the possibility of
compulsorily expropriating the cooperatives' fishing rights on the river. If
done, it will be the first case in Japan.

Now that the fishers rejected the offer, the government has been driven
into a serious corner, said Akahata of November 29. (end)