Yonai Water Purification Plant

The building was completed in 1934 as Morioka City’s first water purification plant. The plant adopts slow sand filters to treat the water, a system operated by using microorganisms that are formed on the surface of the sand layer. This system requires regular scraping to clean the sand, however as the plant is located at a distance from the city, ever since the establishment of the plant, the sand has been maintained with the cooperation of neighboring farmers. In recent years it has attracted much attention as a disaster-resistant infrastructure due the slow filtration system continuing to operate regardless of the power outage that occurred in the event of the Great East Japan Earthquake.