Public Procurement Service "Expanding Public Stockpile of Water Purification Activated Carbon... Aiming to Secure 2.3 Months' Supply"

The Public Procurement Service plans to expand the public stockpile of activated carbon for water purification to resolve supply chain instability caused by complete reliance on imports.

On the 17th, the Public Procurement Service announced that it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Environment and Korea Water Resources Corporation to mutually cooperate in expanding the public stockpile of activated carbon for water purification.

Activated carbon for water purification is used in the final filtration process of advanced water treatment facilities necessary for supplying tap water to adsorb trace amounts of harmful substances.

If activated carbon treatment is not performed, it becomes difficult to eliminate odors from tap water. However, domestically, the entire supply of activated carbon for water purification depends on imports, leaving the supply chain constantly exposed to instability.

Accordingly, the Public Procurement Service began stockpiling activated carbon used by the Korea Water Resources Corporation starting last year.

The agreement was signed to expand the stockpile of activated carbon for water purification used not only by the Korea Water Resources Corporation but also by local governments nationwide.

According to the agreement, the Ministry of Environment and Korea Water Resources Corporation will establish storage facilities for activated carbon (temperature and humidity controlled facilities), and the Public Procurement Service will import and stockpile activated carbon to assist the Korea Water Resources Corporation and local governments in timely use of activated carbon at water purification plants.

The Public Procurement Service plans to stockpile a total of 8,200㎥ (worth about 12 billion KRW), equivalent to 2.3 months of domestic annual demand, of activated carbon for water purification by 2025.

Kim Yunsang, Administrator of the Public Procurement Service, said, “To supply safe drinking water to the public, related agencies have agreed to work together to prepare supply chain response measures. The Public Procurement Service will continue to identify items closely related to citizens' lives that are exposed to supply chain crises and increase the public stockpile of such items to ensure supply stability.”

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