Annual Loss of 1.7 Billion Tons of Water into North Han River Due to Mt. Keumgang Dam Reservoir

Incoming water stream flowing into the North Han River decreased remarkably as the Keumgangsan dam of North Korea continues to fill in its vast reservoir with water, and for this reason, the amount of power generation in several hydraulic dams located in the North Han River such as Hwancheon dam and Chuncheon dam has been decreased in average 26 percent.

When the Keumgangsan dam completes its scheduled scale (the total reservoir is 2,624 million tons of water), the incoming water stream into Han River will decrease about 1,770 million tons, comprising 10 percent of the total 18 billion tons of water. This will also pose a serious threat in water management around Paldang dam, a drinking water reservoir for residents of the metropolitan capital region.

Accordingly, the government will raise issues for a joint investigation on the integrity of the Keumgangsan dam in the North-South Economic Cooperation Promotion Committee to be held on May 7, along with a request to discharge annually about 0.6 billion tons of water from the scheduled reservoir of the Keumgangsan dam, which is necessary for management of North Han river water system. When North Korea refuses the proposals, the government will take various countermeasures including a request for mediation to international organizations.

The experts estimate that a dam of 0.6 billion tons of water reservoir should be built to complement the water shortage in South side caused by the Keumgansan dam and that a budget of three hundred billion Won may be necessary for the construction.

According to the Ministry of Construction and Transportation (MCT) and the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), the average annual water flowing into Hwacheon dam located in the upper stream of the North Han River in South side decreased to 1.2 billion tons from 2.9 billion tons in previous years, a whopping decrease 1.7 billion tons (59 percent) since the Keumgangsan dam started to fill in its reservoir in October 2000.

Accordingly, the average power generation of Hwacheon dam decreased about 25 percent, recording 188.66 million kWH in last year, compared to 250.8 million kWh in 2000.

The situation of other dams located in North Han river stream are almost the same; Chuncheon dam decreased from 126.99 million kWh to 106.74 million kWh (a decreasing rate of 16 percent), Uiam dam recorded from 164.87 million kWh to 119.63 million kWh (27 percent), Cheongpyong dam reduced from 279.73 million kWh to 208.55 million kWh (25 percent), and Paldang dam decreased from 434.49 million kWh to 303.35 million kWh (30 percent).

When considering the average revenue per 1 kWh is fifty Won, the value of the total decrease of power generation in the five dams (329.98 million kWh) is roughly 16.5 billion Won. Furthermore, if the Keumgangsan dam, still under construction, is completed as envisioned by North Korea, the water shortage in Seoul metropolitan region in 2011 will reach at least more than 0.9 billion tons of water, a rapid increase of original government estimation of 0.3 billion tons.

Jae-Seong Hwang jsonhng@donga.com