The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is planning to shoulder the cost of base service fees in water utility bills in the city during what is expected to be an incredibly hot summer.
The city is planning to enact the subsidy over the summer months ¡ª four months between either June to September or July to October ¡ª and a revised budget proposal allocating around ?36.8 billion for the subsidy will be submitted to the regular session of the metropolitan assembly scheduled for June.
Base fees for water services in Tokyo cost an average of ?860 to ?1,460 per month, but the amount also depends on the diameter of a household¡¯s water pipe. Additional costs that rack up through usage ¡ª usually paid on top of the base fee ¡ª will be charged as usual.
The metropolitan government is looking to offer its municipal governments a total of ?1 billion from the subsidy even to parts of the Tokyo metropolitan area where the authority does not supply the water itself.
By lowering utility fees for households, the metropolitan government hopes to give residents a sense of security that they can accommodate other necessary expenses, encouraging them to turn on their air conditioners during the summer to prevent heatstroke, for example.
¡°Due to anxieties over living (costs), there may be cases in which people don¡¯t use their air conditioners during a heat wave even though they own one,¡± Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said on Tuesday.
From June to September last year, a record 7,993 people were taken to the hospital due to suspected heatstroke, the Tokyo Fire Department said. Across the city, 341 people died from heatstroke during the same period. In over 60% of indoor cases, the victims had not turned on their air conditioning.
The weather agency released a projection on Tuesday that indicated that summer temperatures will be higher than previous years over the next three months due to the South Pacific High moving westward, bringing warm and moist air into the Honshu area.
¡°I believe that we need to be quick to implement bold and effective measures like this,¡± Koike said. ¡°We would like to create an environment in which all Tokyoites can live in peace even in the extremely hot weather we are expected to experience this summer.¡±
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