Tokyo Expands Tunnel System To Stop Increased Risk of Flooding

TaiwanPlus News

Underneath Tokyo, a 6.5-kilometer tunnel system redirects floodwaters outside of the city. But increasing levels of rainfall due to climate change threaten to inundate the system and city officials are working on a major upgrade.

Transcript

00:00Deep beneath the streets of Tokyo sits this cavernous cathedral.

00:05It has 59 pillars, each weighing 500 tons and stretching 18 meters tall,

00:11creating a chamber large enough to hold nearly 100 Olympic-sized pools of water.

00:17It's part of an intricate system of dams, levees and tunnels,

00:21protecting the city of 37 million people from floods

00:25by redirecting floodwaters out of the city.

00:29But Tokyo is seeing more downpours than ever before,

00:33and its flood prevention system may no longer be enough.

00:37There is a long-term trend of global warming,

00:41so it is expected that the temperature will continue to rise,

00:45and that stronger rains will continue to fall,

00:48and that record-breaking rains will continue to fall.

01:06This year, Tokyo's flood system kicked in four times in June alone,

01:30more than all of 2020-23.

01:33And as Typhoon Shanshan hit Japan in August,

01:36the tunnels redirected enough water to fill the Tokyo Dome Stadium

01:40almost four times over.

01:42With unprecedented levels of rainfall hitting Tokyo,

02:05the city's flood system has to keep up

02:08to keep rainwaters out of people's homes and flowing safely away.

02:13Hank Hsu and Harrell Hughes for Taiwan Plus.

Category

Transcript

Recommended