Protecting Your Water

The Waterworks Bureau has established a Water Examination Laboratory to test not only the quality of water from Lake Biwa and the Yodo River, which supply Osaka with its drinking water, but also the quality of water discharged by businesses into the Yodo River. We also repeatedly test the water quality throughout the treatment process at purification plants, keeping a watchful eye on any pollutants that might be present.
We also test water quality at drinking-water faucets and use automated water-quality monitoring devices installed at 40 locations throughout the city to carry out 24-hour continuous monitoring of the quality of water in Osaka. To ensure that drinking water is safe and reliable, we use state-of-the-art equipment and technology and are engaged in ceaseless research to enable constant, detailed water-quality monitoring from every angle, from water source to faucet.

Water Quality in the Yodo River

How water quality has changed over the years in the Yodo River, the city’s most familiar water source.

The diagram below shows changes in the quality of the water in the Yodo River. The Basic Law for Environmental Pollution (now the Basic Environment Law) was enacted in 1967, followed by the Water Pollution Control Law in 1970, and individual prefectures also established their own pollution-prevention ordinances and other regulations. These required improved testing of water discharged from factories and elsewhere. In addition, improvements to the sewage system have also resulted in water quality improving slightly. There is still a long way to go, however.。

Using Aquatic Life to Evaluate Water Quality in the Yodo River

This involves investigating changes in water quality by observing the organisms that live on the river bed and in the water. In the mid-1960s pollution from upstream had spread downstream, but by the mid-1980s there had been some improvement.

• FY2005 Water Quality Testing Results
• Water Quality Q&A
• Water Quality Standards
• Questions about Water Quality

[Page Report on Protecting Your Water under Industrial Waterworks under Water Quality Management on the Osaka City Waterworks Bureau Website ends here.]