Drought in Spring Season Severer Than in Last Spring

Due to shortage of rainfall, water storage rate of 13 nation-wide multipurpose and agricultural dams plunged causing worries about expanding restricted water supply from spring drought.

According to the Ministry of Construction and Transportation (MCT) and the Environment Ministry on the 18th, average water storage ratio of 13 multipurpose dams on the 4 rivers like Han River, Kum River, Nakdong River and Sumjin River is 35.6 percent, which is 3.9 percent point less than 39.5 percent in the same time last year, when spring drought was terrible. Such water storage rate is 6.8 percent point less than average water storage rate of 42.4 percent in the previous years.

90,000 residents of 94 Eup and Myeon administrative districts in 14 cities and Kun including Yoju-kun and Hwaseong city in Kyonggi province, where not multipurpose dam but local water service supplies water, are supplied with water restricted to certain hours in a day.

The water storage rate of Soyang River Dam, whose capacity is 2.9 billion tons and which provides water for Metropolitan area like Seoul, is 44.0 percent 3.5 percent less than yearly average 47.5 percent, and that of Chungjudam is 30.3 percent 20.7 percent less than in last year.

MCT said that the drought in winter season is still undergoing with rainfall of 338 mm since last August, which is 62 percent of yearly average (541mm). Hence, it forecasted, `nightmarish memory of drought` in last year would repeat without considerable amount of rainfall.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 18,000 agricultural reservoirs marks average 61 percent in water storage ratio fell by 22 percent from last year. There are 283 reservoirs whose water storage rate is less than 30 percent.

bonhong@donga.com