Surveying the Aquapolis of the Okinawa Ocean Expo Park from its construction to its dismantlement and imagining a repose of souls, I relate my reflection as an engineer out of office. In 1975, our country on a superficial, false impulse made plans for this gigantic project. There is a need to discuss the environmental problems of total life cycle cost and to examine closely the cost versus expenditure efficiency from construction to dismantlement.

Legally, specified persons are not allowed to privately use port facilities (wharfs and the like) as public facilities. However, at the present time marine transport competition is intensifying internationally so public facilities, which are efficient and with new management methods are in keen demand. The concept of "public" becomes a problem. On the subject of the maximum permissible limit of exclusive use for public facilities, I would like to introduce the trend of recent port administration and from there examine the possibility of taking a step forward.

In Kotobikihama, to protect the precious nakisuna, a clean up activity founded by residents and volunteers is actively being carried out. Smoking is prohibited on the seashore and offenders are punished. However, even if people carry out clean up and edification activities, we should not forget that the sea contains the "inochi no mizu" (life water) that actually cleans the seashore. Indeed, to protect the surrounding waters is an important task set for us.