[2024 Budget Plan] Establishing a 'National Water Safety Management System'... Building 10 Dams

6.3 Trillion Won Budget Allocated for Extreme Rainfall Response
19 Local Rivers Upgraded to National Rivers

The government has allocated a budget of 6.3223 trillion won to respond to extreme heavy rainfall caused by climate change.

According to the '2024 Budget Plan' announced by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 29th, the government will establish a ‘National Water Safety Management System’ for all domestic waterways starting next year. The related budget increased by 1.2356 trillion won (24.2%) from 5.0867 trillion won this year.

The scene of Gungpyeong 2 Underpass flooded due to the collapse of Miho Stream embankment last month. The photo is unrelated to the article content. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Among this, the budget for national river maintenance increased from 451 billion won to 662.7 billion won. The number of national river dredging sites will increase from 3 to 19. The budget for national river maintenance also slightly expanded from 250.8 billion won to 261.4 billion won. The government expects that the expansion of dredging and waterway enlargement will reduce flood damage.

Nineteen local rivers vulnerable to flooding will be upgraded to national rivers. Accordingly, a budget of 10.3 billion won is allocated for 10 newly designated national rivers. A new maintenance budget of 4.7 billion won has also been established for 20 confluence sections of national and local rivers. The budget for disaster risk zone maintenance increased from 708.6 billion won to 869.8 billion won.

While only one new dam was constructed this year, it has been decided to build 10 dams. Accordingly, a budget of 9.3 billion won has been allocated. This amount includes feasibility study costs and basic planning costs, and the total project cost is tentatively estimated to exceed 1.7 trillion won. In addition, as reservoir dredging expands from 7 to 77 sites, the related budget increased from 3 billion won to 43 billion won.

Furthermore, an early warning system capable of forecasting 6 hours in advance and an advanced flood prediction network based on simulation will be established on major rivers nationwide. The budget for the AI-based prediction network is 84.4 billion won, and 26.5 billion won will be invested in the simulation platform budget.

Choo Kyung-ho, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, stated, "We will invest 63 trillion won to establish a national water safety management system and create a flood-safe Republic of Korea," adding, "This is a 1.7 times significant increase compared to the average flood-related support scale of 37 trillion won over the past five years of the previous government."

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