Among 14 Climate Response Dams, 9 Prioritized for Promotion... "Without the Remaining 5 Dams, Water Supply Will Be Disrupted"

Nine Climate Response Dams to Be Prioritized with Local Consensus
Five Strongly Opposed Sites to Be Deferred for Now

Uiam Dam Management Bridge. The photo is unrelated to the article content.

The government has decided to prioritize the construction of 9 out of 14 candidate sites for climate response dams. The 5 dams facing strong local opposition will be subject to further discussions. However, there are forecasts that if these remaining 5 dams are not built, water supply will fail during future droughts despite government measures.

On the 12th, the Ministry of Environment held the National Water Resources Management Committee at the government complex in Jongno-gu, Seoul, and deliberated and approved the "1st River Basin Water Resources Management Plan," which includes the final climate response dam candidate sites, regional water shortages and flood prevention measures, and river environment improvement plans.

Among the 14 climate response dams announced last July, 9 sites were selected as final candidates after gathering residents' opinions and reaching consensus with local governments. Flood control dams selected include Yongducheon Dam, Gohyeoncheon Dam, Garecheon Dam, Gamcheon Dam, Hoeyagang Dam, and Byeongyeongcheon Dam. Water supply-only dams include Unmuncheon Dam and Sangicheon Dam, and Amicheon Dam was the only multipurpose dam.

Kim Wan-seop, Minister of Environment, emphasized, "Through the establishment of the management plan, a national long-term plan has been prepared to respond to droughts and floods in the era of climate crisis. Since this is the first dam plan in 13 years for climate response dams, we will proceed together with local communities based on regional consensus."

The dams selected as candidates will undergo a basic design phase, and if the required budget exceeds 50 billion KRW, a preliminary feasibility study will be conducted. After environmental impact assessments related to power generation and other factors, a basic construction plan will be established, confirming the start of construction. For smaller dams, if procedures including resident compensation are not delayed, bidding announcements are expected around 2027-2028, and completion will likely take at least 10 years. Even after the dam is completed, it usually takes 1-2 years to fill with water, so a considerable amount of time is needed before it becomes fully operational.

The total project cost for the 9 dams, including construction, land compensation, and resident support projects, is estimated not to exceed 2 trillion KRW. If all 14 dams are pursued, it is known that 4 to 5 trillion KRW will be required.

The government's motivation for building climate response dams stems from concerns about water shortages caused by extreme weather. The Ministry of Environment estimates future water shortages at 740 million tons annually based on past data. This is due to increased new water demand from industrial facilities such as the Yongin semiconductor advanced industrial complex. Even with measures like repairing aging water supply networks and seawater desalination technology, about 18% (133.2 million tons) will be insufficient, necessitating the construction of climate response dams, according to the Ministry of Environment.

The problem is that even with the completion of these 9 climate response dams, water shortages will not be completely resolved. Park Jae-hyun, Director of Water Management at the Ministry of Environment, stated, "If the remaining 5 dams are not properly promoted, water supply will inevitably be disrupted during droughts similar to those in the past," and added, "We will cooperate with related agencies to ensure smooth progress." Assuming the drought situation in the mid-regions in 1984, there would be no issues if all 14 dams were completed, but with only 9 dams, water supply would fail for about 20 days annually.

The failure to select 5 large-capacity dams due to local opposition and other reasons had a negative impact. Suipcheon Dam, which had the largest storage capacity of 100 million cubic meters, was postponed due to lack of consensus with local governments. This is comparable in size to the combined storage capacity of the other 9 dams. Danyangcheon Dam (26 million cubic meters) and Okcheon Dam (2.3 million cubic meters) were also deferred. Jicheon Dam (59 million cubic meters) and Dongbokcheon (31 million cubic meters) require further discussions.

The government plans to continue communication to ensure the completion of the remaining 5 dams as well. Director Park Jae-hyun said, "First, we plan to establish a discussion table to debate pros and cons with local communities," and added, "We will also more than double the development projects around the dam areas."

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