'26 Million Seoul Metropolitan Area Lifeline' Road Around Paldang Water Source Receives Road Sweeper Deployment

CNG Cleaning Vehicle

Gyeonggi Province has introduced street cleaning vehicles on local and provincial roads within the water source influence zone to protect the water sources.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Construction Headquarters announced on the 19th that from this month until September 2025, eight compressed natural gas (CNG) street cleaning vehicles, which generate less fine dust, will be deployed over 68.7 km. The total project cost is 3.2 billion KRW. The cleaning areas by city and county are 4.8 km in Yongin, 6.6 km in Namyangju, 34.0 km in Gwangju, 1.0 km in Icheon, 15.5 km in Yangpyeong, and 6.8 km in Yeoju.

This deployment of street cleaning vehicles follows the amendment of the Water Environment Conservation Act, which mandates the installation of non-point pollution reduction facilities within the water source influence zone. Gyeonggi Province is the first in the nation to operate street cleaning vehicles specifically for water source protection.

The water source influence zone refers to the water source protection area, waterfront area, special measures zones 1 and 2, and upstream and downstream areas of intake facilities (15 km upstream, 1 km downstream). Of the total 2,121.3 km of local and provincial roads managed by Gyeonggi Province, 692.6 km pass through the water source influence zone.

Considering the characteristics of the road sites, Gyeonggi Province selected areas where installing reduction facilities is difficult or inefficient as sections for road cleaning by vehicles.

During a one-month pilot operation period, Gyeonggi Province plans to adjust the cleaning frequency differently based on road characteristics and traffic volume. In the long term, the cleaning sections will be expanded to a total of 438.1 km.

Park Jaeyoung, head of the Gyeonggi Provincial Construction Headquarters, stated, "Since this street cleaning vehicle operation mainly targets the Paldang water source, which supplies water to 26 million people in the metropolitan area, we expect it to be highly effective in managing pollution sources and improving water quality in the Paldang water source area."

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