Gov`t has few plans to deal with the worst drought

Although the worst drought that hit the western part of South Chungcheong Province is expected to spread nationwide, it turned out that the government has practically few newly-conceived projects to deal with the drought in its budget proposal for 2016. Some note that the government has given up investing for mid and long-term water management and developing policies in preparation for climate change as there have been political controversy over the four-river project.

Government agencies such as the Ministry of Strategy and Finance say that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has allocated a total of 600 million Korean won (approx. 530,202 U.S. dollars) for three new projects as it submitted its water resource-related budget to the National Assembly. This merely accounts for 0.4 percent out of the entire new project budget (approx. 143 billion won to 126 million dollars) for the coming year.

For the new water projects for 2016, the ministry has allocated 200 million won (approx. 176,734 dollars) for building the 2nd regional water supply system in inland Yeongnam area, modernizing the industrial water works in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province and building the industrial water works in Janghang National Eco Industrial Complex, respectively. The one in Yeongnam is an extended project after the 1st project that ended in 2008 and the Janghang project has nothing to do with drought as it is an incidental project of the complex, which was completed last year. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has set aside some 20 billion won (approx. 17.6 million dollars) for building reservoirs and developing alternative water resource for the next year. But this has already been invested for the project and the total amount of money is less than the half of some 45 billion won (approx. 40 million dollars), which was allocated for “the water development for drought” in the revised supplementary budget.

“National-level researches needed to take care of people’s pain who have suffered climate change and drought have not been taken. A roadmap should be prepared to secure and expand infrastructure for mid and long-term water resources,” said Kim Hyeong-soo, professor of civil engineering department at Inha University.