On Tuesday, October 24, 2023, the 37th “Higo Water and Greenery Protection Award” presentation ceremony and commemorative lecture were held.

Chief Director Kai gave a speech at the opening: “This year marks the 37th anniversary of presenting the ‘Higo Water and Greenery Protection Award’. Adding this year’s award recipients, 353 organizations and 16 individuals, a total of 369 recipients have received the awards up to this date. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the co-sponsors, Kumamoto Prefecture and Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun, for their efforts that raise the awareness of issues presented in actualizing and ensuring sustainability of society’s use of groundwater from nature’s bounty, as well as to Kumamoto City and many others who have endorsed the purpose of this activity, which has enabled this award program to continue for a long time. We received a total of 31 applications this year; 7 in the “General Section”, 9 in “Educational Institutions Section” and 15 in the “Continuation Award Section” of the awards category. At the jury committee meeting held on August 30, four organizations were selected for the “Continuation Award Section”, two for the “Educational Institutions Section” and one for the “General Section” as winners. I would like to extend my congratulations and thank to the seven award-winning organizations for their daily environmental conservation activities.”
The guests of honor opening remarks were presented by Vice Governor Kimura of Kumamoto Prefecture and Deputy Mayor Fukamizu of Kumamoto City.

Following the opening remarks by the guests of honor, Mr. Shimada, chairman of the jury committee, gave his comments on the selection of the winners.

Certificate of commendation, commendation shield, and activity subsidy were handed out to the recipients in all the award category.  Students of the Environmental Course, Department of General Agriculture at Nanryo High School in Kumamoto Prefecture are one of the winners in the “Educational Institutions Section”.

After receiving a speech from the representative of each award-winning organization introducing their activities, a commemorative lecture was given by Emeritus Professor Jun Shimada of Kumamoto University on the topic of ” Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Japan”.

The ceremony was closed with a few words of acknowledgement by Vice Chairman Kasahara of the Foundation.

Please visit the Foundation’s Instagram (aigokikin) to see the award ceremony and each award-winning organization.  Here is the QR code for Instagram.