A Japan Disaster Relief Team flew a water-recycling shower set to Turkey, which was rocked by a devastating earthquake on February 6.
After the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the move leverages lessons learned from the situation, when evacuees in affected areas were unable to wash properly due to temblor-damaged water supplies.
The shower equipment, which is expected to improve sanitary conditions in shelters, uses multilayered filters to remove bacteria and other impurities and can recycle 98% of the water used.
This type of shower set is the first to be used in a disaster-hit overseas area.
The shower system was developed by Hokuryo Co., a medical-use gas sales company based in Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture, and WOTA Corp., a startup in Chuo Ward, Tokyo.
The shower set contains a filter capable of converting sea water into fresh water using a small purifier that uses activated charcoal, a tank capable of storing up to 100 liters of used water, and a tent-like shower stall.
The equipment can eliminate most bacteria and viruses, and the filtered water meets Japan's quality criteria for use in public bathhouses.
Following the 2011 quake, disease-bearing microbes caused many evacuees to fall ill, including with the noroviruses. People affected by the Kumamoto Earthquake in April 2016 had similar problems.
Hokuryo President Ken Kasai, who has taken part in relief activities in disaster-hit areas of Japan, wanted to help people facing difficult circumstances. In order to collaborate on the plan, Kasai asked WOTA, which had been developing an outdoor-use water-recycling purifier system. The shower set was completed in 2017.
The first sets were installed in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, which was damaged by torrential rains in July 2018, and Nagano City, which was seriously damaged by Typhoon No. After the installation of the showers, sanitary conditions improved markedly in the evacuee shelters.
According to the Japan International Cooperation Agency secretariat of the Japan Disaster Relief Teams, a single shower set was transported to Turkey on February 8 and sent to Kahramanmaras in southern Turkey, close to the earthquake's epicenter.
Kasai, 48, said that it was very happy to see ideas and technologies born from experiences learned after earthquakes in Japan being used overseas. I hope as many lives as possible - even if it is only one - will be saved.