More Dams Could Have Stopped Floods

Residents of Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province had to evacuate to nearby schools because of flood warnings Sunday afternoon.

As the storage rate of Chungju Dam exceeded 96 percent, which increased the amount of water released, the water level of the Yeoju River reached 9.59m, close to the limit of 10.1m, with a risk of flooding.

Chungju Dam, with the full reservoir of 2.75 billion tons and the only multi-purpose dam in the South Han River, was 90 cm short of full capacity (145m).

Water experts said if Yeongwol Dam in the upstream of Chungju Dam, whose construction work was suspended in June, 2000, had been completed as planned, this crisis could have been avoided.

The government scrapped the plan to build Yeongwol Dam in 2000 in the face of environmentalists’ opposition.

The Dong River and the Hantan River at Risk of Flooding-

“If pushed for as planned, Yeongwol Dam, which was in the basic design phase, should be in the completion phase by now,” said Professor Cho Yong-sik (civil engineering) of Hanyang University. “It would have been a great help to ease the water level at the Chungju Dam.”

The same can be said of the Hantan River, where the water went up to 8.9m, way over the risky level of 8.5m during the day on Sunday.

The government announced the Hantan River Dam construction project in 1999 as the river repeatedly overflowed. Yet the project came to a halt for seven years, faced with opposition from environmental groups and residents nearby, and the Office for Government Policy Coordination is reviewing whether to drop the plan.

The area near the Nam River in South Gyeongsang Province where Typhoon Ewiniar hit on July 11 is in the same situation. The government considered building the Munjeong Dam in Hamyang-gun, South Gyeongsang Province upstream of the Nam River Dam, but it ruled out the location as candidate site in 2001 because of resistance from residents and environmentalists.

Increasing Torrential Rains and Decreasing Dam Construction-

With unusual weather patterns stemming from global warming, torrential rains occur more often.

Korea Meteorological Administration analyzed data from some 300 precipitation observation centers across the country and found out that torrential rains increased from 2.2 per year in 1939, to 5.3 in 1940-1979, to 8.8 after 1980.

In contrast, multi-purpose dams with more than 300 million tons of reservoir capacity designed to prevent flood damage in large rivers were constructed last in 2001 when the Geumgang Yongdam Dam of 815 million tons was completed.

In 2005, the Dam of Peace was built in case of the collapse of the Mt. Geumgang Dam in North Korea (Imnam Dam), so it has no function of preventing a flood.

Jangheung Dam in Jangheung-gun, South Jeolla Province, completed this year, is a small-scale dam with only 191 million tons. Hwabuk Dam in Gunwi-gun and Seongdeok Dam in Cheongsong-gun in North Gyeongsang Province, which are in the construction stage, have 28 million to 49 million tons in water storage capacity.

“The size and number of dams are on the decrease since 2001 because of the lack of social consensus,” said Won In-hee, water resources planning director of Ministry of Construction and Transportation.

The budget for managing rivers declined from 1.12 trillion won in 2004 to 991 billion won in 2006. Since 1980, the proportion of the budget set for managing rivers out of GNP is 0.07 percent on average, falling far short of 0.45 percent.

Experts: “Not Building Dams is Equal to Giving Up Managing Rivers-

Environmentalists are against the opinion that flooding is due to the lack of dams.

“Floods are caused by overdevelopment and poor drainage and sanitation systems, not by the shortage of dams,” said Kim Hye-jung of the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement. “Citing the lack of dams is nothing more than an excuse government officials use to evade their responsibility.”

Yet most water resources experts refuted that it is a problem to oppose the only fundamental solution of the construction of dams to a flood.

“Erratic weather patterns are increasing both human and property damages caused by floods. It is high time to actively discuss building large dams where needed based on social consensus,” said Shim Myung-pil (civil engineering) of Inha University.

Joong-Hyun Park sanjuck@donga.com abc@donga.com