A greenhouse as a new home for people displaced by the Japan earthquake

A dozen people have been living for a month in a greenhouse in the middle of agricultural crops in the Japanese town of Wajima, after losing their homes due to the devastating earthquake that has left thousands of displaced people in a very precarious situation with no short-term solution in sight.

The refugees, from four different families, have temporarily settled in the metal and plastic shed used as a common tomato and cucumber garden, the only structure left standing in this area of ​​Wajima, one of the hardest hit by the earthquake in magnitude 7.6 last day 1.

This group of people, who numbered over thirty in the first days after the earthquake, have conditioned the greenhouse as much as possible to withstand temperatures below zero, and prefer to stay there rather than go to one of the public shelters in the area that have with other limitations.

Neighbors united in the face of disaster

“The living conditions in these evacuee centers are not the best for us,” Yasuo Bo, 69, tells EFE while he smokes while sitting in front of one of the several stoves that heat the premises, where kitchen utensils, blankets, futons and stacked boxes of food and drink are accumulated.

Bo reports that all the residents of the area chose to seek shelter in the greenhouse after their houses were completely destroyed or at risk of suffering collapses and harming their tenants, accidents that have become the main cause of death among the 238 fatalities. of the natural disaster.

The members of this small community supported each other in the first difficult days after the disaster, when hardly any food or water supplies reached the area, and even helped rescue four neighbors who were trapped in the rubble of their houses.

Some of them were moved to evacuee centers in the cities of Kanazawa or Komatsu where relatives were staying, and also where they could count on adequate services for young children, says Kin-ichi Hatanaka, 71 years old.

Bo, Hatanaka and the other current residents of the greenhouse, including three teenagers, prefer to remain in these circumstances and accompanied by “people who have known each other all their lives” rather than moving to evacuee centers “crowded” and where they would be “surrounded by strangers” and exposed to contagious diseases, they claim.

“We don’t lack anything here… Although the truth is that it was hard to have 30 people packed here,” Bo admits between laughs.

He and the rest of the community hope to be able to move as soon as possible to the temporary houses that the regional government is installing, although like them there are some 14,500 people who lost their homes and do not know when they will be able to have a permanent home again.

Victims at risk

Of the total number of people displaced by the disaster, less than a third have chosen to move – or have been able to do so – to ‘secondary accommodation’, as the authorities call hotels, hostels and other facilities enabled to offer more decent conditions, such as toilets. with running water or electricity.

The vast majority of evacuees are in so-called ‘voluntary shelters’ managed by local communities and, in the case of Wajima, without either of those two basic services, in addition to being affected by frequent outbreaks of flu, coronavirus and other diseases.

There are also several dozen people – up to 70, according to data from the Wajima City Council – who are sleeping in their vehicles after losing their homes, many of them suffering from chronic pathologies and reluctant to stay in facilities where several hundred refugees can gather in a same space.

Medical centers, local and regional authorities and private sector volunteers have launched health care and psychological support initiatives for victims in more vulnerable situations, such as the elderly or people with disabilities, given the risk of more indirect victims of the natural disaster. .

The extensive material damage resulting from the strongest earthquake recorded in Japan since 2011, including extensive damage to bridges and roads and some 45,000 homes totally or partially destroyed, hinders the reconstruction process of this region and the return to normality for its inhabitants.