인디미디어 Korea Indymedia

* This article is Part 2 following Part 1 --> http://korea.indymedia.org/drupal/?q=ko/node/1832

 Is it possible to make water clean by digging up the river floor?
 

One of the most significant goals of the government’s “Four Rivers Restoration” master plan is increasing the amount of clean water. The government claims that if the project is successful, it can dramatically improve the water quality of the rivers. However, experts point out that the government’s report on present the water quality is exaggerated. For example, several months ago, the Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) posted a campaign video on their homepage to promote the Four Rivers Project. The video showed several pictures of dirty streams with dead fish and dying birds, suggesting that the four rivers were highly polluted. In reality, opposite is true. According to current news reports, species that have been considered extinct are returning to the rivers as the water is becoming cleaner. The MLTM’s video attracted a lot of criticism, which made the MLTM quickly remove the propaganda video from its website. In contrast to the argument made by the government, a researcher from River of Life Research Group (생명의 강 연구단) states that the pollution is far more concentrated in small branch streams than in the main streams that the government plan targets. He says, “It doesn’t make sense that the government says they can improve the water quality of the main streams while leaving local streams still polluted. It will be a huge waste of budget.” 
 

*The picture above is one of the images that MLTM inserted in their campaign video to justify 4 Rivers Plan. This is actually the photo of a polluted stream located in Seattle, U.S. 23 years ago.

Far from improving the water quality, experts say that the Four Rivers Restoration Project is much more likely to have negative effects on the quality of water. According to the government’s plan, the bottom of the rivers will be dredged in a very large scale operation in order to build large reservoirs. The reservoir construction will cause tremendous water pollution. Furthermore, the stagnant water in the reservoirs is likely to rot rapidly. Two weeks ago, the National Institute of Environmental Research announced negative results in research it had performed based on a simulation of the Four River Project. The institute said that the water quality of the four rivers will worsen if the 20 new reservoirs are built because they will block or slow down water flow. The institute’s report proves that what the government says to people is far from the truth.
 

The Four Rivers Project is not a simple problem only concerning water quality. It will also destroy most of the ecosystems around the rivers. Fish will be unable to survive the construction, which includes digging up river floors to make shallow streams into huge reservoirs that are 5 to 11 meters deep. If the fish disappear, the habitats of other animals will be destroyed, including those of 58 endangered species such as cranes and otters. The Four Rivers Project will clearly result in an unprecedented disaster for all living creatures around the four rivers. Even though the government still claims that its project is environment-friendly, anyone with common sense can see that the government cannot make “eco-rivers,” as its promises, by excavating the river floor and cementing it.

Prevention of floods: another poor excuse for the Four Rivers Project
 

Another major goal of the plan, announced by the government, is the prevention of floods and the conservation of water resources. According to the government, floods generate about 7 trillion won in losses and costs of repair every year. Furthermore, floods from the last 10 years have tended to be more disastrous than in the past, which may be attributed to climate change. The government argues, therefore, that they need to enlarge the water capacity of the rivers by constructing dams and reservoirs. However, the number is a trick. In actuality, 7 trillion won is the amount of losses and costs incurred by floods throughout the whole country, not just the four rivers. The damage from recent torrential downpours and floods has been concentrated on mountain areas and local streams, while the main streams of the four rivers have been relatively safe from recent floods. It was also around small and medium sized local streams that the downpours of last July caused serious floods and disasters.
 

Far from preventing floods, the Four Rivers Project is more likely to increase floods. Kim Jeong-ook, an environmentology professor of Seoul National University, said that constructing dams, straightening waterways, and dredging and cementing river floors can cause more catastrophic disasters. According to Professor Kim, floods increased 100 times after the grand dam projects in Korea, providing evidence that supports his argument. Kim suggests that the only way to reduce floods is tearing off existing cement floors and banks, rather than constructing more artificial structures.
 

* The picture above shows Gangwondo area that was struck by Typhoon Rusa in 2002. For recent 10 years, the damage from floods and landslides has been concentrated on mountain areas and local streams.

Increasing the water supply for agriculture is another benefit the government mentions to advocate constructing dams and reservoirs. However, experts are skeptical about the water supply as well. Lee Sang-hoon, a professor of Suweon University and former representative of the Korean Environmental Impact Assessment Study, points out that increasing water supply is contrary to the flood prevention function of dams. When water in the reservoir should be discharged in preparation for the flood season, water is unavailable to farmers. Furthermore, the flood season in Korea occurs from July to September when water supply is most necessary for crops. This shows that the government’s point concerning water supply is pure fabrication to deceive people and push for their project. Moreover, when the construction is completed, Nakdong River, one of the four grand rivers, will be able to hold one billion tons of water. However, the quantity of water that is actually required around the Nakdong area is only one tenth of that amount. Nobody knows what the government will do with the huge surplus of water.

The ghost of the Grand Canal
 

Why is the MB government so ambitiously pursuing a plan for such implausible reasons? Civil and academic groups claim that these unreasonable goals of the project only reveal that the MB government never gave up the Grand Canal Plan, despite MB’s declaration of aborting it last June. In other words, the Four Rivers Restoration Project is connected to the Grand Canal. The huge scale of dredging operations and the construction of reservoirs might be the groundwork for the Grand Canal that MB is dreaming of.
 

Written by Korea IMC

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