Nakdonggangcheong Provides Over 50 Billion KRW in National Funds to Prevent Urban Flooding

17 Projects by 9 Local Governments Including Gimhae and Busan City

The Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office announced on the 22nd that it plans to support 17 projects with approximately 50 billion KRW in national funds to prevent urban flooding in 9 local governments in the Gyeongnam and Busan areas in 2024.

The urban flooding prevention projects are initiatives by local governments to prevent urban flooding during rainfall by maintaining sewer pipelines, installing rainwater pumping stations, and sewage storage facilities in sewer maintenance priority management areas.

Priority management areas are designated and announced by the Ministry of Environment at the request of cities and provinces under the Sewerage Act for areas at risk of flooding due to insufficient sewer pipeline capacity and poor internal water drainage caused by high sea levels.

Within the jurisdiction of the Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office, a total of 35 sites are designated: 22 in Gyeongnam and 13 in Busan.

In 2023, the Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office invested 37.2 billion KRW (34.8 billion KRW in Gyeongnam and 2.5 billion KRW in Busan) in urban flooding prevention projects, supporting the maintenance of 88 km of sewer pipelines, installation of 14 rainwater pumping stations, and 2 sewage storage facilities.

According to the amendment of the Sewerage Act, local governments must establish sewer pipeline maintenance plans for priority management areas. Based on these plans, maintenance must be conducted at least once a year on sewer pipelines, stormwater chambers, manholes, and rainwater inlets.

By the end of December each year, local governments must submit the maintenance performance of sewer pipelines for the current year and the maintenance plan for the following year to the Environmental Office. Failure to comply may result in a fine of up to 5 million KRW imposed by the Environmental Office.

The Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office is inspecting whether local governments have established sewer pipeline maintenance plans and the status of their maintenance to prevent urban flooding.

Chief Officer Choi Jong-won stated, “We will strengthen support to prevent urban flooding caused by climate change, and we ask local governments to thoroughly clean rainwater inlets and manholes.”

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