The Relations between the Prevailence of Large-Scale Wate-Supply Enterprises on Municipal Waterworks and Water Pollution

在日本，特别是自20世纪80年代中期以来，许多城市的自来水厂从大型公共供水企业获得了更多的水。另一方面，这些城市已经放弃了越来越多的自己附近的水资源。因此，作者假设，如果大型公共供水企业的数量增加并超过当地自来水厂，当地水资源的观测往往会更加不谨慎，保护水资源的污染程度也会越来越严重，许多地区的水环境一定会受到越来越严重的污染。这一假设实际上在一定程度上得到了统计分析的证实，对前来接大型公共供水企业水的各市自来水厂工作人员进行走访和询问，对各市自身水源废弃地区的居民进行询问，并向有关各市邮寄慰问品。大型公共供水企业的发展不是地方政府的意志，而是中央政府和地方政府的主动行动。这种自治的失败和由此导致的水供应过剩已经成为日本水污染的主要原因。

In Japan, many municiparities have become to receve more water for their waterworks from large-scale public water-supply entetprises especially since mid-1980s. On the other hand, these municiparities have abandoned more and more thier own water resources near at hand. So the author hypothesized that local water resources are apt to be more incautiously observed and less severely less severely preserved from pollution and that water-environments of many regions must be more and more polluted if the large-scale public wate-supply enterprices increase and prevail over local waterworks.This hypothesis was actually proved to some degree through statistical analyzes, visiting and questioning the staff of waterworks of the muniuciparities which have come to receive water from large-scale pubric water-supply enterprises, questioning the inhabitants of the regions where municiparities' own water resouces were abandoned, and sennding postal questionnairs to the municiparities concerned. The prevailance of large-scale pubric water-supply enterprises owes to the initiatives of the central government and prefedtural authorities rather than municiparities'own wills. Such failure of autonomy of municiparities and the oversupply of water as its result have come to be prominent causes of water pollution in Japan.