On Monday, October 28, 2024, the 38th “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 38th anniversary of presenting the ‘Higo Water and Greenery Protection Award’. Adding this year’s award recipients, 359 organizations and 16 individuals, a total of 375 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 28 applications this year; 8 in the “General Section”, 4 in “Educational Institutions Section” and 16 in the “Continuation Award Section” of the awards category. At the jury committee meeting held on September 5, two organizations for the “Continuation Award Section”, three for the “General Section”, and one for the “Educational Institutions Section” were selected as winners. I would like to extend my congratulations and thank to the six award-winning organizations for their daily environmental conservation activities.”
The guests of honor opening remarks were presented by Vice Governor Takeuchi 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 Pig Farming Project at Kumamoto Agricultural 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 Professor Yuichi Onda from the University of Tsukuba on the topic of “Forest management as a measure to protect water resources”.

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.