River Restoration Project to Get 60 Pct. More Funding

A government project to restore the country’s four major rivers will be expanded to include the Seomjin River and 13 tributaries. The four rivers are the Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yeongsan.

The Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Ministry, the Environment Ministry, the Culture, Sport and Tourism Ministry, and the Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry yesterday announced a plan to restore the four rivers.

The budget was also increased 60 percent from 13.9 trillion won (11 billion U.S. dollars) to 22.2 trillion won (17.6 billion dollars).

“Many nearby residents asked us to include the Seomjin River and tributaries of the four major rivers in the project,” a Land Ministry official said. “We thought it will be more efficient to expand the scope of the project to achieve our initial goals: water quality improvement and regional development.”

The five key priorities of the project are securing water resources; guard against flooding; improving water quality; creating multi-purpose states near the rivers; and promoting regional development through related businesses.

A combined 1.3 billion cubic meters of water will be secured by building reservoirs and small and mid-size dams. Rudimentary soil will be laid and aging banks reinforced to increase the flood control capacity to 920 million cubic meters.

The government also plans to raise the level of second-degree water of the mainstreams and tributaries of the four major rivers from 76 percent to 86 percent by 2012. It will build roads for bicycles and pedestrians near the rivers.

The project will be implemented in two ways: the main project will cover the mainstreams of the four major rivers and the other will streamline the Seomjin River and 13 tributaries of the four major rivers.

The main project will be completed by 2011 at a cost of 16.95 trillion won (13.4 billion dollars) and the other by 2012 for 5.25 trillion won (4.1 billion dollars).

The two projects will issue orders this month and work will start in October. A mandatory joint contract system will require the participation of domestic builders to a certain degree.

The rest of the country’s rivers will be gradually managed with new plans by 2010.

aryssong@donga.com