[2020 National Audit] "K-water's Failure in Yondam Dam Discharge Adjustment... Careless Response and Misjudgment"

No Woong-rae, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] On the 19th, Roh Woong-rae, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, pointed out in detail the Korea Water Resources Corporation's (K-water) failure to adjust the discharge volume of Yongdam Dam during the heavy rains last summer at the National Assembly audit.

At the Water Resources Corporation audit held by the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee that day, Rep. Roh criticized, "The causes that worsened the flood were the reservoir level being twice the usual level, failure to secure flood control capacity, failure to adjust discharge volume, and careless responses and misjudgments such as continuing to release a huge amount of water despite flooding in downstream areas."

K-water maintained a higher reservoir level than usual to ensure stable water supply but failed to secure flood control capacity to prevent flood damage downstream. Regarding the flood control capacity securing rate, it was 103.6% on July 29, but dropped to 55.7% from July 31 to August 4, 68.5% on August 5, and only 73.8% on August 6.

It was also revealed that K-water failed to adjust the discharge volume relative to the flood inflow. From August 5 to 8, despite an inflow of 4,395 tons per second on the 7th, the approved discharge volume was maintained at 300 tons per second and then adjusted to 700 tons per second, but the actual discharge was only 295 tons per second. Moreover, this change was made four hours after approval, starting at 4 p.m.

K-water consistently showed careless responses, and when the inflow began to surge due to heavy rain on the 8th, it rapidly increased the approved discharge volume four times at 1 a.m., 9 a.m., 11 a.m., and 12 p.m., raising the actual discharge volume to a maximum of 2,919 tons per second.

Rep. Roh criticized, "Even after a large-scale flood occurred, K-water, under the pretext of preparing for Typhoon Jangmi, carried out discharges exceeding 1,400 tons per second from the 9th to the 12th, resulting in the absurd situation on the 12th of securing storage space exceeding twice the flood control capacity for the flood season."

Rep. Roh emphasized, "This year, the monsoon period was long, and rainfall was about 1.7 times higher than usual. The significant flood damage downstream of Yongdam Dam is largely due to K-water's overly complacent delayed response, misjudgments, and initial response failures," urging the corporation to devise supplementary measures.

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