Ministry of Environment to Build 10 More Dams Next Year... Basic Plan Initiated

The government will promote the construction of 10 new dams nationwide and the remodeling of existing dams starting next year.

On the 7th, the Ministry of Environment held a meeting with experts at the Hangang Flood Control Office and announced plans to proceed with basic planning and feasibility studies for the construction of 10 new dams nationwide and the remodeling of existing dams starting next year.

The Ministry of Environment has allocated a total budget of 9.3 billion KRW for this purpose in next year's budget proposal.

The Ministry's discussion on new dam construction and ways to enhance their utilization comes from the assessment that the frequency of extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall and droughts caused by climate change is increasing. In fact, since 2010, the frequency of extreme droughts in the southern regions has surged, and since 2019, cases of deaths and damages caused by floods due to extreme rainfall have also increased sharply. The government plans to strengthen public safety and secure water resources through efficient water management by utilizing dams.

On the 11th, when the heavy rain that struck the Seoul metropolitan area entered a lull, water was being discharged from Paldang Dam in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province. / Namyangju = Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

At the meeting, experts suggested that unlike in the past, active investigations into land use are necessary. Considering the difficulties in raising existing dams, they judged that using upstream auxiliary dams could secure flood control capacity and also help block sources of water pollution.

Cooperation with local governments was also emphasized. They explained that active collaboration with other agencies is necessary, citing the example of Seongdeok Dam, where the water storage capacity of an agricultural reservoir was expanded from 800,000 m³ to 7.9 million m³ in 2006.

The Ministry of Environment plans to comprehensively review the opinions raised at the expert meeting and reflect them in specific measures for new dam construction and remodeling of existing dams.

Han Hwa-jin, Minister of Environment, said, "We will actively incorporate the experts' experiences and specific opinions presented at today's meeting into future dam policy implementation, and when establishing related plans, we will additionally collect opinions from experts, local governments, and local residents."

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