Kim Byung-won Preliminary Candidate "Promoting Comprehensive Plan for Yeongsan River Ecological Restoration"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Kim Byeong-won, the preliminary candidate for the Democratic Party of Korea for Naju·Hwasun in Jeonnam, stated on the 20th, “To comprehensively diagnose the environmental issues of the Yeongsan River and prepare practical alternatives, I will actively engage in jointly promoting Naju City's leading policy tasks and securing related budgets.”

Candidate Kim emphasized, “It is time to overcome the current issues facing the Yeongsan River and devise alternatives that can achieve a civilizational transition,” adding, “This will be an important policy task with significant meaning as a global ecological civilization movement.”

The Yeongsan River, the birthplace of Honam civilization, has become a long-standing dilemma for the local community after the construction of the estuary dam in 1981 and the installation of weirs during the Lee Myung-bak administration’s Four Major Rivers Project, which led to the loss of water self-purification capacity and severe ecological destruction.

Although various issues have been raised for the restoration of the Yeongsan River, fundamental alternatives and solutions addressing the conflicts of interest among farmers and fishermen have not been established, causing the matter to drift without resolution. Political interests are also intricately entangled, leaving no clue for a solution.

On the other hand, Busan City, which is conducting research aiming to open the Nakdong River estuary dam by 2025, experimentally opened the sluice gates of the Nakdong River estuary dam in June and September last year in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment to investigate salinity and water quality. This year, in the first half, they are conducting a demonstration experiment by extending the opening hours of the sluice gates.

Busan City is widely gathering local public opinion and, after adopting the issue of opening the Nakdong River estuary dam as a local development pledge in the Moon Jae-in administration’s 2017 presidential election, is actively resolving the matter through social dialogue involving civil and government governance with the local community.

Candidate Kim promised, “Like the Nakdong River estuary dam, I will do my best to ensure that the Yeongsan River issue is practically resolved through the establishment of a comprehensive plan and adoption as a national agenda at the government level.”

He added, “We plan to form a ‘civil-government governance’ encompassing central and local governments, specialized institutions, academia, civic groups, and farmers and fishermen to establish a comprehensive restoration plan for the Yeongsan River and prepare practical solutions.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.