OSAKA – Only 40 percent of dams in Japan can pre-emptively release water held in the reservoirs behind them prior to heavy rains to mitigate flood risks, a Kyodo News survey showed Monday.
Following recent typhoons and other extreme weather incidents, the lack of a pre-release function forced some dam operators to carry out an emergency discharge only after water levels approached their limit. During torrential rain in western Japan in 2018, a number of people died in swollen rivers after water had been released.
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