Water environment group went to Kobe as excursion on March 9th.
We first went to the “Kobe water science museum” .There, we were able to see many exhibits about water. The most impressive exhibit was the “journey of water through Kobe ” . Before seeing the exhibit I had only paid attention to the water that runs from the tap to the drain. Actually, water are stored in reservoir, purification plant, pump room, service reservoir and finally they are distributed to each families. After water is used they will be processed in the sewage treatment plant and will return to nature. By looking at the exhibit,I felt that we must thank our life being able to use water conveniently and also not to pollute the water for our environment.
Next we went to sake(Japanese alcohol made by rice)workshop called”Hamafukutsuru". “Nadagokyou“ in Kobe is one of the famous brewery in japan. The secret to make good Sake is good rice and water. The underground water in Mt.Rokko contains rich mineral and phosphorus which are ground by granite and weathered pebbles. All the sake made in Hamafukutsuru is made by this underground water. If the quality of water changes because of environmental destruction, tradition of sake in Japan will decline.
The last place we visited was Higashinada sewage plant.With the clear explanation we were able to understand the mechanism of the plant.There are purifying the waste water with strict standard depending on the environment standard of the destination.Microorganisms play active part in this process.First, air is blown into the sewage that has been mixed with sludge. Then, microorganisms will become activated and will eat nitrogen and phosphorus in the waste water. When the microorganisms are precipitated the top layer of the water becomes clean processed water. Moreover, in Higashinada plant, they are making an attempt to recycle this sludge into biogas and fertilizer. We learned that sewage plant plays a role in conservation of natural environment and improvements of our daily lives. However, a lot of electricity is needed when processing sewage.We realized that economizing water will also lead to saving energy.
We would like to dig into the facts we have learned for the summit upcoming in summer!