- Shiba River
The Nihongo|Shiba River|芝川|Shiba-gawa is a tributary of the
Arakawa River that mainly runs through the eastern part of Saitama Prefecture. The river has Nihongo|Suehiro|末広 and Nihongo|Kobari-ryōke|小針領家 inOkegawa, Saitama as points of origin and flows throughAgeo ,Minuma ,Kawaguchi , andHatogaya , and connects to theArakawa River .History
Originally, the river flew into a wetland at the current region of
Minuma . In 1629, a civil engineering project by Nihongo|Tadaharu Ina|伊奈忠治 created a reservoir and blocked the flow. In 1727, the reservoir levee was demolished to open up the area for creating rice paddies. in 1728, the lowest sections of the area were gouged to allow for the passage of water, which set the current position of the river.Water quality
The water quality of the river is poor, since it flows through urban areas. A report published in 2006 (
Heisei 18) by theMinistry of the Environment indicates levels ofDioxin above the standards set for public waterways. For this reason, recent years saw efforts to clear up the river. [http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8A%9D%E5%B7%9D_(%E5%9F%BC%E7%8E%89%E7%9C%8C) Retrieved from the Japanese Wikipedia, on 2008 September 6 ]References
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