[Editorial] Government in Need of Giving Confidence to Residents in Wido

It is a quite understandable decision by the government not to offer monetary compensation to Wido residents. However, disappointment must be enormous for Wido residents who might have expected cash compensation from the government. If angry residents withdraw its bid for offering the site for the nation`s first nuclear waste facility, the two-decades prolonged state project will hit a snag again.

Wido residents have a right to demand compensation in exchange for their accepting for the facility that others disliked to host in their residential areas. However, many critics feared that handing out cash compensation would set a bad precedent for future government`s projects. As the government previously promised to provide 300 billion won in government assistance to residents near the site for the facility, residents will receive compensation in any form of government assistance. Therefore, the government should clearly inform them of the fact and persuade them to hold on to their previous decision.

There is no room for the government to delay the much-awaited project. It is time that the government presented practical and concrete measures to ease their anger. If the government failed to do so, the state project will fall into anther crisis like 13 years ago in Anmyundo where despaired residents withdrew their decision to host a nuclear waste facility on the islet. In light of that, it is an appropriate decision by the government to send a government committee, which will take charge of the compensation matter, to persuade and ask for understanding of the residents in Wido. .

The government should make an effort to give confidence to Wido residents that they will receive practical rewards instead of cash compensation. There are various forms of incentives that the government can provide for them such as increasing income sources through joint profit-making projects and creating jobs at related facilities, which will be constructed in Wido and Buan County. Anther option is to build a tourist park on the islet in collaboration with Buan County for which the government can spend budget under the name of “livelihood stabilization” for Wido residents.

If the government addressed the issue properly, it will set a good precedent for similar future state projects. Considering the gravity of the matter, government officials should engage in a productive conversation with those angry residents. Should the residents be assured that they will be better off after the construction of a nuclear facility on the islet, they will accept the government`s decision.