» Lifting evacuation order for Kawauchi village was postponed due to oppotions by the residents

2014/07/14

The government no longer plans to lift evacuation orders on July 26 for village of Kawauchi, whose citizens were evacuated, it was announced during meetings with local residents on July 13.

The consultations were held in Kawauchi village itself, as well as in the Fukushima prefectural city of Koriyama. The government began by announcing that it intended to lift the evacuation orders on July 26, but residents began protesting that the infrastructure was not yet ready, among other complaints.

In attendance at the meetings were officials from government organizations including the Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters and Reconstruction Agency. They explained that following the completion of decontamination in the area, monitoring which took place in June had confirmed that radiation exposure levels were below 20 millisieverts per year. They also said that upgrades had been made to local transportation and shopping facilities.

Residents began complaining, however, commenting, “How can you claim that the infrastructure has been back on track when residents of other cities and villages (with facilities such as shops and hospitals) are unable to return home?” and “The temporary storage facilities for decontaminated soil have yet to be cleared away.”
<Media Report>
Lifting of Fukushima village evacuation order shelved amidst protests (Mainichi Newspaper)

Tags:evacuation, japanese government, news, return to evacuation zone

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