A group of citizens filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Japanese government for its poor management of a river that allegedly caused a deadly flood in 2015.

Some 30 people from 19 households and a company in the city of Joso, Ibaraki prefecture near Tokyo, filed the suit with the Shimotsuma branch of the Mito District Court.

According to the plaintiffs, the government failed to revamp a dike that was aging and not high enough and did not have enough flood-control measures in place, as heavy rain hit the area in September 2015 and caused a flood that killed two people and destroyed more than 8,000 buildings.

The plaintiffs sought a total of 335 million yen (3 million U.S. dollars) in compensation for their losses and for the mental suffering.

Yasushi Tadano, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the lawsuit could help people living by rivers in other parts of Japan to review the flood control measures in their areas.

An official from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said the ministry had not read the complaint yet and declined to comment on the issue.