Gyeonggi-do to Conduct Emergency Inspections of 243 Reservoirs in the Province Next Year with 16.6 Billion Won Investment

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province will invest 16.62 billion KRW next year to conduct detailed inspections and functional improvement projects to enhance disaster preparedness capabilities of 243 agricultural reservoirs managed by cities and counties within the province.

This is a follow-up measure after some reservoir embankments collapsed due to heavy rains last month.

Among the agricultural reservoirs in the province, 189 reservoirs, or 78%, have been in existence for over 50 years since their construction, and 239 reservoirs, or 98%, are small-scale reservoirs with less than 300,000 tons capacity, meaning most are old and small-scale reservoirs.

The agricultural reservoirs managed by cities and counties have small spillways that discharge water downstream, and lack closed-circuit television (CCTV) or automatic water level measurement devices, making them somewhat inadequate to respond to the increasingly frequent localized heavy rains. The embankments of the San-yang Reservoir in Icheon and the Bukjwa Reservoir in Anseong, both rated B for safety, collapsed during the heavy rains across the province last month for these reasons.

Accordingly, starting next year, the province will conduct comprehensive detailed inspections and reservoir function reinforcement projects through cities and counties to improve reservoir management systems and enhance disaster preparedness capabilities.

First, 3 billion KRW, including disaster management funds, will be invested to conduct detailed inspections of 199 agricultural reservoirs managed by cities and counties. The detailed inspections will be carried out by safety-specialized institutions to ensure professionalism and objectivity.

The reservoir function reinforcement projects will be divided mainly into reservoir reinforcement and installation of maintenance facilities, and will be implemented sequentially considering the detailed inspection results and the status of downstream residents.

Reservoir reinforcement will focus on improving disaster preparedness capabilities by installing and expanding spillways and emergency sluice gates. In addition to the ongoing 'Disaster Risk Reservoir Maintenance Project' at five sites including Hudong Reservoir in Yongin, a new project called 'Reservoir Disaster Prevention Function Reinforcement Project' will be added.

The Disaster Risk Reservoir Maintenance Project designates reservoirs rated D for safety as disaster risk reservoirs and supports facility function reinforcement with national funds.

The province plans to continuously invest budgets after next year to complete reinforcements for all agricultural reservoirs managed by cities and counties within the province.

Along with this, installation projects will be promoted for 204 reservoirs that do not have maintenance facilities such as closed-circuit television (CCTV) and automatic water level measurement equipment.

Kim Chung-beom, Director of the Provincial Agricultural and Marine Affairs Bureau, said, "We are pursuing functional improvement measures for aging agricultural reservoirs from various angles. Although it is difficult to improve all 243 reservoirs managed by cities and counties at once, since this is a disaster preparedness project, we will actively promote it to prevent damage to residents caused by disasters."

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