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Environmental Model City Kitakyushu and Us

Kitakyushu National College of Technology

Hello, everyone. We are from Kitakyushu National College of Technology. Our names are Kentaro Okubo, Taisuke Fukuhara and Samson Yoshinaga. We all belong to the Mechanical Engineering Department. Today we would like to share with you a brief history of how Kitakyushu City has overcome its pollution problems and what we are doing to improve the environment around us.

The City of Kitakyushu, where we live, is blessed with beautiful nature. Look at these slides --- this is Hiraodai karst tableland, this is Sugao Water Fall, and this is the Murasaki River running down to the downtown area. Many people in and around Kitakyushu City visit these places especially on weekends and enjoy the nature there.

About 50 years ago, however, our city looked totally different. The air was dirty with soot and smoke, the rivers were like drainage ditches and the nearby sea was so contaminated that a bay in Wakamatsu Ward named Dokai Bay was called the Dead Sea.

In the 1950s, smoke dust from factories began doing damage to the health of local people. Many people had lung-related diseases and to our surprise, we learned that a certain elementary school in Kitakyushu City had suffered from the smoke dust so much that the school was finally closed for good.
In the 1970s, however, the city started to make the utmost effort to reduce and prevent pollution, working together with industry and academia. Ten years later, the environment of Kitakyushu City had improved dramatically. In fact, fish came back to Dokai Bay and people enjoyed the blue sky again.

The city's efforts for a better environment didn't stop there.

The City of Kitakyushu set an even higher goal to become an eco-friendly city. In the 1990s, the city issued a regulation for sorted garbage collection, which helped Kitakyushu citizens to raise their awareness of the environment. In addition the city built “The Environment Museum”, and in Kitakyushu Science and Research Park leading-edge studies of environmental problems began to be conducted. The Japanese government recognized these efforts and activities and finally in 2008 the City of Kitakyushu was designated as one of the Environmental Model Cities in Japan. An Environmental Model City serves as a model for making large cuts in greenhouse gas emissions towards the realization of a low-carbon society.

Now let us talk about a couple of concrete examples of what we, Kitakyushu Kosen students, are doing in order to improve the environment around us. Look at this slide. This is the Shii River running near our Kitakyushu Kosen. This river used to be so clean that we were able to enjoy watching lots of fireflies there in early summer. But the water quality of the river became worse year by year due mainly to garbage some thoughtless people threw into it. As a result, the number of fireflies we could observe dropped sharply.

About 5 years ago, one of our professors in the Mechanical Engineering Department stood up and started the Shii River Clean-up Campaign. He first called for students of his laboratory to start cleaning up the river, and then members of the student council joined them. The professor also asked a nearby elementary school to take part in the activity. Now in August every year, about 40-50 people including Kitakyushu Kosen students, elementary school kids and their parents get together and collect garbage from the river as well as around it. We are happy to tell you that now we can watch as many or even more fireflies flying near the Shii River in early summer.

Then let me talk about another activity of ours to broaden people's awareness of the environment. Did you ever hear of 北九州環境首都検定, which is a test of Kitakyushu citizens' environmental knowledge.
This test started in 2008. It is designed to provide people living in Kitakyushu and those interested in Kitakyushu with more chances to learn about its environment, to raise their awareness of it and to deepen their interest in it.
This is a copy of the official guide for 北九州環境首都検定 with practice questions. And this is a copy of the publicity poster for last year. The City of Kitakyushu publishes them. As you can see there is a character for this test, trying to make people feel familiar with the test. It is called Te・i・ta・n, Teitan . In the beginning year of 2008, 458　people took the test. The number of examination takers is increasing every year. Last year, 2024 people took the test. We would like more people to know about this test, so that even more people will take it in the near future.

I see, but what does this test have to do with us Kosen students?

All the fourth-year students of the Mechanical Engineering Department take this test as part of the requirement for the environment learning program. Furthermore, fifth-year students are sometimes given a chance to make questions for this test.

That's interesting, isn't it!
So, what kinds of questions are actually asked, for example?
There are three levels of questions: one is Junior Level aimed at elementary school kids, another is General Level for people older than elementary school kids and the last is Expert Level.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me give you two questions from this test now. You may want to write down your answers on a sheet of paper, so that you can check them later.

The first one is from Junior Level:
Which of the following is able to live in a very dirty river?
1) Triclad
2) Larva of a firefly
3) Leech
4) Earthworm
The second one is from Expert Level:
Which of the electric appliances below is NOT covered under the Home Appliance Recycling Law.
1) Microwave oven
2) Clothes Dryer
3) Refrigerator
4) Air-conditioner

It's hard, isn't it? Have you chosen your answers?
The correct answers are these! (shown on the screen).

Now let's recap our presentation today.
As we explained earlier, Kitakyushu City used to suffer from severe pollution problems. But it overcame them and is now an environmental model city that can lend a helping hand to other areas in Japan and abroad to overcome their own environmental problems. We, Kitakyushu Kosen students living in Kitakyushu City, are doing what we can to improve the environment in our neighborhood, and are trying to raise people's awareness of the better environment, as well as our own, through our environmental knowledge test.

As future engineers, we would like to continue our efforts to make the environment of our city, our country and the world even better.