About 700 people whose houses were damaged by flooding in Nagoya last September filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the city for failing to take precautions to prevent the disaster.
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| Nagoya Residents stage a demonstration in front of the Nagoya District Court. |
Each of the plaintiffs is seeking 1 million yen in damages from the city, with the total amount of compensation they are demanding standing at 750 million yen.
It is the first legal action against a local government by flood victims in the Tokai region, which is comprised of Gifu, Shizuoka, Aichi and Mie prefectures.
The rain caused flooding in 51 areas and damaged embankments, leaving 10 people dead. Municipal operations in Nagoya were temporarily paralyzed, while the economic damage caused to Aichi Prefecture alone reached 780 billion yen.
The 700 people taking part in the legal action are residents of Nonami in the city's Tenpaku Ward, where about 1,300 houses were damaged by the flood.
They sued the city for failing to provide adequate pumps to help drain floodwater into the Tenpaku River, even though the city had been predicting major floods for years and similar inundations had occurred following a downpour in 1991.
They also criticized the city administration's development plan because it halved the number of reservoirs, reducing its water-storage capacity.