Onga River Pumping Station

The Onga River Pumping Station was built in 1910 on the east bank of the Onga River. It served, and still serves, to deliver industrial water to Yawata via an 11.4 km pipeline. This supply is integral to the steel production process and was necessary to cope with the 1st phase expansion of the Imperial Steel Works. The Onga River Pumping Station comprises two attached buildings built in English-bonded brick: the boiler house with its floor at the ground level and the pump house with its floor set below ground level. A settling basin also remains. The original steam pumps were removed and replaced by the existing electric pumps, in the 1950s. The pumping station still supplies approximately 70 per cent of the industrial water needed for steel production at Yawata. By the late Meiji period, full-blown industrialization had been achieved through newly acquired domestic expertise and active adaptation of the imported Western technology to best suit Japanese needs and social traditions.