Report cards for aging and maintenance assessment of water-supply infrastructure

During past periods of rapid economic growth, infrastructure development in Japan was intense. This infrastructure now requires both renovation and replacement. Appropriate management of infrastructure is critical as the population falls, budgets become reduced, and staff numbers dwindle. The Japan Society of Civil Engineers evaluates infrastructure soundness and publishes the results to promote understanding of the current situation and to emphasize the importance of maintenance. We devised indices for evaluating deterioration of drinking-water distribution pipelines and maintenance management systems for the pipelines. The indices are the percentage of old pipelines, the percentage of ineffective water, change in the number of technical staff per unit length of pipe, and the repair rate of water leaks. Using these indices, the evaluation result for Japan overall was a C (Caution) in terms of deterioration and Downward in terms of maintenance management.