(ろうきゅうか)

deterioration with age; becoming dilapidated

(すいどうかん)

water pipe; water main

(こうかん)

exchange; swap

(すすむ)

to advance, to progress

(にほん)

Japan

(かくち)

various places, everywhere

(ふるい)

old (things)

(おおきな)

big (attrib.)

(かだい)

issue, problem, challenge

(おおい)

many

(ごじゅうねん)

fifty years

(まえ)

before, previous

(うめる)

to bury; to fill in

(くだ)

pipe, tube

(やぶれる)

to tear; to burst; to break

(どうろ)

Road; street

(きゅうに)

suddenly

(みずびたし)

flooded; submerged in water

(じこ)

accident; incident

(おきる)

to happen, occur

(たくさん)

a lot / many

(ひよう)

expense, cost

(かかる)

to take (time/money), cost

(じんこう)

population

(へる)

to decrease / to diminish

(ちいき)

region; area

(すいどうりょうきん)

water charges; water bill

(はらう)

to pay

(ひと)

person / people

(そのため)

therefore; for that reason

(ひつよう)

necessary / needed

(おかね)

money

(あつめる)

to collect

(むずかしい)

difficult

(こうじ)

construction work

(ぎじゅつしゃ)

engineer; technician

(ふそく)

shortage; insufficiency

(もんだい)

problem

(くに)

country; the government

(ふくすう)

several, plural

(しちょうそん)

municipalities; cities, towns and villages

(きょうりょく)

cooperation

(すいどう)

water supply, plumbing

(うんえい)

management / administration

(ほうほう)

method; way

(すすめる)

to recommend

(みずもれ)

water leak

(ばしょ)

place

(おと)

sound

(じんこうちのう)

artificial intelligence

(みつける)

to find; to discover

(ぎじゅつ)

skill, technology

(ひろがる)

to spread

(せんもんか)

expert, specialist

(かぎる)

to limit; to restrict

(よさん)

budget

(つかう)

to use

(きめる)

to decide

(たいせつ)

important

(はなす)

to speak, talk

to become (い-adjective)

Expresses a change of state for い-adjectives. Drop the final い and add くなる. Indicates something has changed or will change to a new state.

to become

Expresses a change of state; Kawai became the new commissioner of the Sports Agency.

about; approximately

After a number, ほど gives a rough amount in the same way as ぐらい. 五十年ほど前 means the pipes were laid roughly fifty years ago.

passive voice

Expresses that something is done to the subject. Here the crabs were carried in (運ばれました) and Shiraoi's crabs are known as a specialty (知られています).

easy to ~ / tends to ~

Used in 'うつりやすくて' meaning 'easily contagious / easy to catch'.

is doing, has been doing (ongoing state/action)

Expresses a continuing action or resulting state. Formed with て-form + いる/います. Can describe an action in progress or a state that continues from a past change.

the one who / the thing that ~ (nominalizing の)

の stands in for an unnamed person or thing. 引き継ぐのが、大岩剛さんです means 'the one who takes over is Go Oiwa'.

come toward (action approaching)

Indicates motion toward the speaker or a location. Here it describes rocks flying toward people.

embedded question: where / what / whether

A question word plus か can sit inside a larger sentence as its object. どこに使うか、決めること means deciding the question "where should it be spent?".

nominalizer: the act of doing (as subject)

こと turns a verb into a noun phrase, and が marks it as the subject. 決めることが大切だ states that the act of deciding is what matters.

老朽化した水道管の交換が進まない

Replacement of aging water pipes is not moving forward

日本各地で、古くなった水道管の交換が大きな課題になっています。

All around Japan, replacing water pipes that have grown old has become a major issue.

多くの水道管は五十年ほど前に埋められました。

Many of the water pipes were laid in the ground about fifty years ago.

古い管は破れやすく、道路が急に水浸しになる事故も起きています。

Old pipes burst easily, and accidents in which a road is suddenly flooded are happening as well.

交換にはたくさんの費用がかかります。

Replacing them costs a great deal of money.

人口が減っている地域では、水道料金を払う人も減りました。

In areas where the population is falling, the number of people who pay water charges has dropped too.

そのため、必要なお金を集めるのが難しくなっています。

For that reason, raising the money that is needed is becoming difficult.

工事をする技術者の不足も問題です。

A shortage of engineers to carry out the work is also a problem.

国は、複数の市町村が協力して水道を運営する方法をすすめています。

The national government is promoting a method in which several municipalities cooperate to run the water supply.

水漏れの場所を音や人工知能で見つける技術も広がってきました。

Technology that locates leaks using sound or artificial intelligence has also been spreading.

専門家は「限られた予算をどこに使うか、決めることが大切だ」と話しています。

An expert says, "It is important to decide where to spend a limited budget."