Friday, March 12, 2021

Tsunami 10 years on, the Japanese great sea wall (video)

10 years ago this week, the Northern coast of Japan was ravaged by the Tohoku Great Tsunami followed by the melt down of the Fukushima Nuclear reactors. The catastrophe killed over 20,000 people and destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands. 

Almost immediately, Japan started reconstruction. But as is often the case, the Japanese Government instead of learning the lessons of the disaster decided to do more of what had just proved a complete failure. The tsunami concrete walls which had either crumbled under the strength of the waves or hardly stopped the tsunami at all were to be rebuilt. 

But this time, the 4m high walls were replaced by a pharaonic  400km long, 17bn dollar project 14m high with foundations going 25m down: The great Maginot line of tsunami! 

Usual response: If it fails, it's not because you are doing anything wrong but because you didn't do enough! We have seen this principle on steroid in 2020.

 


 

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