現在地
Message from the President of the JSCE to all members in response to the collapse of a road caused by a sewer pipe
SASAKI Yoh, the 112th President of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers, delivered a message to JSCE members on February 26th, 2025, regarding a road collapse accident caused by a sewer in Saitama Prefecture.
* Note: The Japanese text shall prevail if there is any conflict or inconsistency between these two texts.
Message from the President of the JSCE to all members in response to the collapse of a road caused by a sewer pipe
Since the road collapse accident caused by a sewer pipe in the Nakagawa River Basin Sewer System in Yashio City, Saitama Prefecture, on January 28th, 2025, I have been distressed as the President and as a member of JSCE. I want to express my sympathy to the people affected by this accident, including those who are still searching for the missing person, those who are devoting their energies to dealing with the situation on the ground, those who are having to live with restrictions in the area around the site, the 1.2 million people who have their water use affected, those involved in wastewater treatment, and those in various locations who are working urgently on inspections and other tasks. I hope daily life will return to the area as soon as possible.
I believe that the JSCE members, experts in civil engineering, are also paying close attention to this infrastructure accident and wondering what they can do about it.
Maintaining and extending the infrastructure’s lifespan have been significant issues. The Sasago Tunnel accident in December 2012 made us awoken our preparedness. This road collapse accident will impact society in the same way as the Sasago Tunnel accident.
Since they designated 2013 as “The beginning of infrastructure maintenance,” the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has undertaken many initiatives. JSCE has also been at the forefront of the civil engineering domain in promoting the importance of infrastructure maintenance and technology. However, this accident has occurred. How should we, the JSCE members, take this situation?
In particular, we have seen extensive damage to invisible underground structures, as well as the impact and difficulty of recovering from an accident that causes a loss of function in a network of lifelines. It is necessary to have a broader perspective in the discussion than just dealing with the ongoing accident and ensuring the integrity of structures.
What is “the perspective” in this case?
For example:
1. There are multiple lifelines underground of road infrastructure.
2. Although these underground lifelines are invisible, they exist as a network very close to us.
3. Water supply and sewage systems play a role in the hydrologic cycle in the region.
4. These infrastructures’ construction, usage, and management costs are expensive, and the cost-bearing scheme is difficult to understand.
5. “We” live in a so-called built environment created throughout history.
6. Measures cannot be implemented without a broad understanding and agreement from “us.”
Keeping these scopes in mind, we need to find a way to solve the issues, and at the same time, we need to aim for a society where we, who use the infrastructure, think about how we can live with the infrastructure as our issue.
It is impossible to consider all these issues by each person, field, or sector. The JSCE has civil engineers from a wide range of fields. We want to use this strength as a collaborative effort across borders to work on technology for infrastructure maintenance and management more than ever. Thus, we will provide a place for dialogue and discussion.
At the same time, I would like to encourage JSCE members who are not directly involved in the above discussion to talk to the people close to them, such as their colleagues, family, and neighbors, about how they can deal with familiar infrastructure such as sewers as a matter that concerns them personally. We, JSCE, have a vast knowledge accumulated in the JSCE Journal. We also have proposals and statements published for society. While using these resources and not limiting ourselves to each expertise, our efforts in facing and engaging in dialogue will help to develop the essential strength needed to move society and the future in a better direction.
In this message, I would like to ask all 38,000 JSCE members to work together to tackle this complex problem as a team of the JSCE.
February 26th, 2025
SASAKI Yoh, Prof., Dr.Eng
The 112th JSCE President
These are my thoughts at this point.
I have also added links to the backnumbers of JSCE Journal and JSCE’s statements and proposals related to our confronting issues.
We will continue providing information as we make the activity plans more concrete. So, I would like to ask all JSCE members to start with what you can do.
Finally, I thank everyone who gave me advice and support in composing this message.