Article from Kyunghyang Shinmun:
Korean Government Deemed Construction of ‘4-Rivers Project’ Poor, Yet Behind the Scenes Pushes Ahead with ‘5-Rivers Project’
Timeline of action on the 4 Major Rivers Project to the Park government’s process of expanding the hydrophilic area of 5 major rivers.
It has been discovered that while the Korean government was reevaluating the 4 Major Rivers Project completed in 2013, it had also been planning the 5 Major Rivers Project, adding Seomjin River to the 4 major rivers to develop the surrounding area. In public, the government deemed the 4 Major Rivers Project to be of ‘completely poor quality’ but behind the scenes, the government showed a different side, working with local governments to put together a master plan to greatly increase the range of the 5 major rivers’ hydrophilic areas.
Based on national government and local government documents revealed on May 26 by Congressman Lee Mi-kyung, of the National Assembly’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), in May 2013 MOLIT decided to create within the Office of the Prime Minister, a committee to investigate the 4 major rivers project. One month later, MOLIT announced a plan to segment the districts of Korea’s rivers. In July 2013, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) presented the results of the third inspection indicating the government pushed ahead with the 4 Major Rivers Project with the idea of building a Korea Grand Canal in mind. Following this, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) placed a service order with the Korea Institute of Construction Technology (KICT) in regards to the district designation of Korean rivers, and started discussions with other local governments. On December 31, 2014, the KICT submitted the final report to the NTSB showing the range of the 5 major rivers’ hydrophilic areas would be expanded by 1.5 times. Only 8 days after assessing the 4 Major Rivers Project, the BAI pointed out the safety issue and the poor quality of ecological parks in the 4 major rivers, while the NTSB presented an overall 5 major rivers development plan for the surrounding area.
From July 2013 to now, the NTSB hasn’t consulted the Ministry of Environment about their land development and environmental planning while working on expanding the hydrophilic areas of the 5 major rivers. In March 2014, the Ministry of Environment started investigating the ecological park in the 4 major rivers deemed by the 4 Major Rivers’ BAI to be of poor quality.
In response to the May 26th Kyunghyang Sinmun article ‘5 Majors Rivers Project Including Seomjin River Secretly Carried Out, Hydrophilic Areas to Expand by 49%’, the NTSB clarified that it is just a draft, and that 70% of the restored area would be included in the conservation areas and only the remaining 30% would be included in the hydrophilic areas. It admitted its error in the report, stating the hydrophilic area of Seomjin River is 6.32% not 63.2% as was mentioned in the Kyunghyang Sinmun. The NTSB revealed that beginning in 2016, it will apply the result of the district selection to all of the rivers in Korea.
Environmental groups and experts say that even though the the Seomjin River’s hydrophilic area will be reduced, the Korean government’s plan will dramatically expand the 5 major rivers’ hydrophilic areas overall by 1.5 times, from 24.24% to 37%. Hwang Incheol, the Team Leader of the Peaceful Ecology Department at Green Korea United, said “Despite NTSB guidelines, they only decided to install the basic equipment necessary for river maintenance, including sign boards and CCTV. From the outset, the restoration area should be considered together with the conservation area.” He also said, “The government will sacrifice water quality if they expand the hydrophilic area of Nakdong River to more than twice the size and if they more than quadruple the size of the Yeongsan River and Seomjin River.
Comments from Daum:
프린스턴님
With only one person wrongly elected as the president, the whole country has been wrecked.
galaxias님
Punish the mad Mouse Lee and Chicken Park government, trying to make money by digging up Korean rivers that are all fine.
관악산 도인님
From ancient times, a river has been the lifeblood of living things. Now the river is not able to flow, and is dying.
희망 나눔님
A country that deceives the people. They are doing what they want after winning the election.
김용석님
Take whatever you want till the whole country is destroyed.
나그네님
People who graduated from Dongji Commercial High School with MB.. This just makes me laugh.
벅버스터님
There is a reason why people say Lee Myeong-bak-Geun-hye. There’s no difference though whether it is a mouse or a chicken.
snow님
Is it a country? The president was wrongfully elected, so the media, jurisdiction and politics are all being thrown away. People in their 20s to 40s please remember to vote and people in their 50s to 70s, please vote with common sense and your children in mind. Because of Mouse Lee and Chicken Park, justice has disappeared in Korea!!~~
백두산님
Neighboring country Japan has armies that possess the highest tech weapons, China is creating and exporting the world’s fastest subway but Korea is pouring money into the rivers. Korea is on its way to failure…
roknavy님
What the heck are they talking about!!!
zlxldi님
Shouldn’t the president be impeached?
이카루스님
What are we supposed to do with that bitch and jerk? Eo-hyu..damn it
주는마음님
Who else could do that….this is why Korea is shit
일체유심조님
The government that deceives its people cannot be called the government but just a dirty bug that is wasting rice.
vxcvvcxvx님
Crazy people, who can say you are not out of your mind? How many more days of craziness till you are back to normal? Insane people.
evergreen님
Are they able to think properly after drinking water from Nakdonggang?
루피님
Fire the NTSB.
우리나라조진나라님
Myeongbak is loyal as he left something that the next person can take advantage of.
서과님
They know what makes money..
