Representative Song Young-gil Visits Gangjin Heavy Rain Damage Site... "Let's Overcome the Disaster Together"

Seungok Lee, Gangjin County Mayor, Visits Flood Damage Site and Promises Measures

22.61 Million Overturned Malyang Shellfish Killed by Heavy Rain... Plea for Chance to Repay Debt

Democratic Party Lawmakers Take Action on Site to Devise Countermeasures

Lee Seung-ok, Gangjin County Governor, Song Young-gil, Party Leader, and members of the Democratic Party are inspecting the abalone damage site and consoling the fishermen. (Photo by Gangjin County)

[Gangjin＝Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-su] On the morning of the 17th, Gangjin-gun, Jeollanam-do announced that about 60 officials, including County Governor Lee Seung-ok, Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil, Assemblymen Kim Seung-nam, Kim Byung-joo, Lee Yong-bin, former Jeollanam-do Governor Kim Young-rok, and the head of Gangjin-gun Fisheries Cooperative, visited the abalone farms in Maryang-myeon to console the fishermen and prepare support measures.

Currently, there are 31 households engaged in abalone farming in Gangjin-gun, cultivating a total of 22.61 million abalones (9,400 racks) in sea cages over a licensed area of 40 hectares. Due to the heavy rain that poured for three days starting from the 5th, freshwater flooded the offshore abalone farms, causing the death of all 22.61 million abalones.

A county official explained, “The heavy rain caused freshwater discharge from the Sanao and Mandeok reclamation areas, lowering the seawater salinity to below 15‰. The yellow soil mixed in the freshwater clogged the abalones’ breathing holes, which is presumed to have caused the mass mortality.”

Kim Seong-ho, president of the Abalone Association, tearfully said, “The loans taken for livelihood amount to about 10 billion won, and most fishermen have borrowed up to the maximum limit, so it is impossible to return to their livelihood without government support. With the complete loss of abalones, we cannot even afford tuition and living expenses, making it hard to sleep.”

The government disaster relief fund standard for damage caused by this heavy rain is up to 50 million won per household according to the Natural Disaster Investigation and Recovery Guidelines. Since the abalones ready for shipment were completely lost, the current disaster relief funds seem grossly insufficient to repay loans and debts amounting to about 10 billion won.

At the site, Jeollanam-do Governor Kim Young-rok and Gangjin County Governor Lee Seung-ok proposed key requests including ▲designation of Gangjin, Haenam, Jindo, and Jangheung as special disaster areas ▲inclusion of damage to crops, forest crops, and livestock in the damage assessment criteria for special disaster area designation ▲increase in recovery support rates for vinyl greenhouses, grapes, and fruit trees from 50% to 100% ▲increase in restoration costs for Hanwoo and dairy cattle from 30% to 50% ▲increase in support rates for aquaculture facilities and aquatic organisms such as abalone and flatfish from 25?33% to 50% ▲establishment of new standards for abalone shell recovery costs.

Governor Lee Seung-ok said, “We will request the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to declare the abalone damage as a special disaster area so that the affected fishermen can receive appropriate compensation, and we will spare no support.”

Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil said, “We will do our best with Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, Minister of the Interior and Safety, and Minister of Strategy and Finance, along with Governor Kim Young-rok, to restore the damage and help fishermen return to their livelihoods quickly. Let’s overcome this disaster together.”

Gangjin＝Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-su kys86120@asiae.co.kr

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