Toyota taps wells to beat water supply disruption in central Japan

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp is using well water at its factories to avoid the impact of an industrial water supply disruption in central Japan, a spokesperson said on Wednesday.

A leakage at a water facility in the Aichi prefecture has disrupted industrial water supply, affecting more than 130 business establishments, local government officials said. Those establishments include firms and factories with ties to Toyota.

Japan's largest automaker will be able to operate as usual for Wednesday and will continue to monitor the situation after that, the spokesperson said.

Media reports had said industrial water supply would stop by around 9 a.m. (0000 GMT) on Wednesday at 131 businesses in 12 municipalities in the Aichi prefecture, including the city of Toyota where the automaker's headquarters is located.

But supply had not completely stopped as of 11:15 a.m., an official at Aichi Public Enterprise Bureau told Reuters, adding it was uncertain when the disruption would be fixed.

Some major assembly lines at Toyota's factories in the area had already planned to suspend production, prior to the water supply issue, due to parts shortage stemming from the COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai.

(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Himani Sarkar)