To the site of the disaster: Dispatching support teams to Sendai city
　From March 26th to April 1st, 2011, I acted as the captain of the Sendai City Third Disaster Recovery Support Team, performing disaster relief efforts at the site of the earthquake.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) and Sendai city have a mutual disaster support agreement. On March 11th, directly after the earthquake occurred, we dispatched a preliminary investigation team, and simultaneously formed a support policy towards the Sendai city's Waterworks Bureau. The preliminary team dispatched from TMG includes young officials and technicians. In one-week shifts, the first, second, and third teams supported recovery of the Sendai city's Waterworks Bureau.
The young officials were engaged in emergency water supply. They supplied water from 8 am to 7 pm for the water outage areas. This meant that they arose at 5 am and returned to their lodgings at 8 pm. For water supply in areas where soil erosion made restoration difficult, they deposited water supply bags and notices explaining the details to houses where the occupants were not at home. Officials from Sendai city highly valued these actions of the young workers as very thoughtful, and the job was a significant one for the workers.

　The technicians were dispatched for emergency recovery work. First, they based their work at Sendai Municipal Kunimi Water Filtration Plant, checking the passing water and leaked water for the Nishikigaoka district. This area is 10 km west of Sendai Station, with a population of 3,340 and 1,520 households. With 16 days having passed since the earthquake, the people there were in great need of water. The dispatched workers are experienced technicians who excel in water control and maintenance. They showed the skills they had refined with Tokyo waterworks by laboring continuously from early morning of the 26th to late at night, and on the morning of the 27th the waterworks were operational. Although they remarked that this was their first time to check such a vast number of sluices and fire hydrants, it was most impressive how the technicians continued working on the drainage amid light snow without even eating dinner.

Activity of the task force: Inspection of Kesennuma city
　During the dispatch, I sat in with Sendai city officials at the waterworks damage task force council. Reports were made on the status of operation of the water filtration plant and of disrupted water supplies. Additionally, I attended the coordination council for supporting activities, of which the Japan Water Works Association (JWWA) is a bureau. The JWWA is a group with regional offices throughout Japan, working among its offices to resolve problems regarding critical and urgent waterworks issues. The recent earthquake has caused damages spread across the Tohoku region, in response to which the JWWA approached restoration of the disaster areas with a support system from across the nation. The JWWA requested that TMG survey the conditions of Kesennuma city, where damage was particularly harsh. On March 29th we went to Kesennuma to conduct that survey.

　The conditions in Kesennuma city were very different from those in Sendai city, where water supply to the inner city was foreseeable. One-third of the urban areas of Kesennuma city were flooded, and fires were continuing in the port areas due to oil spilled from outdoor oil tanks. At the time of the tsunami, those in the area had only enough time to evacuate the vehicles, and everything else was swept away entirely. Restoration of the city government buildings was entirely impossible, so the Niitsuki Water Filtration Plant, located in a mountainous area, became the center for relief efforts.

　After being briefed on the damage status of Kesennuma's water supply, we first headed towards Motoyoshi ward where a waterworks management office is located. Both sides of the road leading from the Niitsu Water Filtration Plant to the Motoyoshi Waterworks Management Office were a scene of destruction. The tsunami had left a startling mark with loads of rubble, overturned bridge structures, and Kesennuma train cars far from their tracks. The water management office in Motoyoshi ward had been struck by the tidal wave over 10 meters high. All that remained was the structure of a government office and shallow well water. One of the staff members from the office were missing. Water had been cut off to 2200 locations, with restoration of the water supply expected to take over 5 months. We were rendered speechless by the words of the director of the water management office that had now been reduced to ruins—"This area used to be a beautiful seaside view that we were so proud of." With no end in sight, the Kesennuma city employees solemnly carried on with their work.
After our inspection of the shallow well water, we confirmed that if the saltwater underground was sucked out and the pump was drained, the underground reservoir could be put back into use. We completed our investigation after confirming that even though there was no plan yet for restoring power, a diesel-powered generator and makeshift circulation pump could supply water to the filtration plant.

-In closing
Despite the wide area that the earthquake affected in this instance, we were able to swiftly administer support. I believe this is because we used our experiences from past earthquakes to form support policies among national waterworks groups, particularly the JWWA, and because of the results of joint training between cities with mutual assistance programs. I have strong confidence that the devotion and intensity that the staff members of city organizations, including those of Tokyo, are showing towards restoration efforts will be a cornerstone in building towards recovery from the disaster.

-The recent support to the area
　From March 17 to August 3, 400 employees of TMG's Waterworks Bureau was assigned to the job to help the suffered areas including Miyagi Prefecture issue disaster victim certificate, and to distribute necessities to the refugees to Tokyo area. It also sent 8 employees to Iwate and Fukushima Prefecture, and Sendai City on August 1. Their term will be until the end of next March.