A history of water quality monitoring system in Japan

Abstract

After serious water pollution problems caused health risks such as the "Minamata Disease," the water quality monitoring systems have been developed under the Basic Environment Law and the Water Pollution Control Law in Japan. Water qualities are being regularly sampled at about 9000 points in public waters (rivers, lakes, inland and coastal seas and groundwater) and analyzed by each prefectural government. Measurement results across the country have been stored for several decades. In this section, the history of the development of water quality monitoring system is explained with relation to the improvement in water environment in Japan.