MATSUE, Shimane Pref. -- As the controversial project to fill in Isahaya Bay in Nagasaki Prefecture takes its toll on the marine environment, local residents here are battling against another unwanted public works project that appears to serve no purpose.

In Shimane, public attention has again focused on the reclamation of Lake Nakaumi, Japan's fifth-largest inland body of water, in connection with a development project designed decades ago. In late May, citizen groups from Nagasaki and Shimane prefectures concerned about the projects' effects on local ecosystems held a joint meeting in Matsue and reaffirmed their goal to halt work at both sites.

"Between May and August last year, we collected 540,000 signatures in Shimane to petition the authorities to abort the Nakaumi project," said 60-year-old Takehiko Hobo, a professor of public finance at Shimane University and the head of a local citizens' group. "With Isahaya and Nakaumi in tandem, we will continue to stage our protest at the national level."

As in the case of Isahaya Bay, the reclamation of Lake Nakaumi was conceived in line with a national policy in the 1950s to increase farmland to cope with chronic food shortages following World War II. According to the Agricultural Structure Improvement Bureau, the origin of the project dates to 1963, when plans were launched to create 2,500 hectares of farmland.

The plan designed by the bureau, a section of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, involved draining water from three areas in Lake Nakaumi and reclaiming two. The initial project was later coupled with desalination of the lake and a linkup with Lake Shinji, which is also brackish, to secure water for the new farmland, the bureau explained.

Over the years, however, the national agricultural policy has changed in favor of reducing rice cultivation to prop up prices, while the country's farming population has dwindled from 8.1 million in 1970 to some 3 million today. Although reclamation had been completed in the other four areas by 1992, work at the 1,700-hectare Honjo area, the largest of the five, was suspended in 1988 due to vehement opposition by locals concerned that the quality of the lake's water would deteriorate.

As a result, a floodgate in an embankment northeast of the Honjo area was left open so seawater could flow in and delicate ecosystems in the lakes could be preserved without the desalination. Statistics show that some 75.9 billion yen had been spent by the time of suspension -- nearly 69 percent of the total cost of 110 billion yen that was initially estimated. Experts say this figure will rise.