Nakagusuku and Kitanagusuku residents’ group asks local sanitation association to refuse U.S. military waste collection
On March 16 at the Nakagusuku Village and Kitanakagusuku Village Sanitation Affairs Association, the head of the Association, Gima, receives a letter of appeal from Kiyoshi Nakama (left) of the group of Nakagusuku Village and Kitanakagusuku Village residents who oppose collecting waste from the U.S. bases. The document requests that the Association refuse to collect U.S. military waste.
March 18, 2018 Ryukyu Shimpo
On March 16, a group of Nakagusuku Village and Kitanakagusuku Village residents who oppose collecting waste from the U.S. bases visited the Aobaen waste processing facility operated by Nakagusuku Village and Kitanakagusuku Village Sanitation Affairs Association.
The residents’ group submitted a letter of appeal to the head of the Association Kiyoshi Gima, asking that the Association stop collecting U.S. military waste come April. In addition, the group submitted an open letter of inquiry about the contents of the U.S. military waste collected.
Following the revocation of Kurashiki Kankyo Company’s license for waste disposal, including industrial waste, the Nakagusuku Village and Kitanakagusuku Village Sanitation Affairs Association has been collecting up to four tons of general waste per day from U.S. military facilities since December last year.
The Association has decided to continue collections into April.
At the time when the Aobaen waste processing facility was constructed, it was subsidized by Japan’s former Defense Facilities Administration Agency.
The villagers’ letter of appeal contains five points, including a request for the release of memos and communiqué exchanged between the U.S. military in Okinawa and the Okinawa Defense Bureau during construction of the Aobaen facility, and a request for the villagers’ opinions to be heard.
The residents’ group stated that the lack of an advance notice to residents about collection shows that these matters were handled dishonestly without villagers’ involvement. Also, they complained that, “U.S. military waste contains toxic substances, so we are worried that these facilities will not be usable later.”
Furthermore, the residents’ group composed a questionnaire of five inquiries, one of which asked for disclosure of the basis whereon waste disposal companies in the villages began collecting U.S. military waste, dispite the fact that the 2014 waste management plan for Kitanakagusuku Village did not contain even a hypothetical mention about the disposal of U.S. military waste.
Gima of the Sanitation Affairs Association said that collecting U.S. military waste does not pose any particular problem.
As for the questionnaire from the villagers, he simply said, “I hope to answer scrupulously.”
(English translation by T&CT and Erin Jones)
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