The industrial water supply business
started in 1937 in Japan. After World War II, a law system to govern industrial
water supply was established for the stable supply of inexpensive industrial
water to sustain high economic growth. Currently, there are 260 facilities run
by 151 public companies in Japan. About 90% of the 260 facilities recorded net
profit thanks to a decrease of interest burden. However, the fact remains that they
have lots of unsold industrial water, making their financial conditions uneasy.
The biggest problem with the industrial
water supply business is the gap of supply and demand. Currently, only about
60% of the supply capacity of the total facilities is being used, and the glut
is prevailing nationwide. As a matter of fact, it is rather hard to forecast
precisely demand of industrial water because required amount of industrial
water varies with location and category of industry. Demand for industrial
water falters constantly because of the change of industrial structure and company’s
efforts to rationalize water consumption. Closing or relocation of a big plant
decreases water demand drastically. There are no easy solutions for the current
gap of supply and demand.
It is an urgent task to establish a system
that eliminates the gap and utilize surplus water effectively and efficiently. It
may be one of the possible solutions to use the surplus industrial water as
general purpose water, though it is not fit for drinking. The existing law has
some constraints on the diversion of industrial water to general purpose water,
but the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is reportedly considering mitigating
the application so that the surplus industrial water can be used for general purpose
water. (To be continued)
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