Gov’t Pushes Ahead with Rivers Restoration Project

To be implemented with the ’5+2 Greater Sphere Development Model’ for balanced national development

The government plans to push ahead with a mammoth plan to restore the nation’s four major rivers despite vehement resistance from opposition parties.
President Lee Myung-bak ordered the push for the four-river restoration project, saying that now that the nation has become the global No. 1 semiconductor maker, an automobile powerhouse and a nation trying to successfully put an artificial satellite into space, restoring rivers will be not that difficult a thing in comparison.
President Lee made the remark on Dec. 30 while receiving a report from government ministries on social overhead capital and regional economies for the year 2010. He also said Korea has become one of the world’s nuclear power plant exporters.
He told the contractors in charge of the four-river restoration project, “The government will do its best in providing support so that all the jobs can be done in an efficient manner. I would like the contractors to have a mindset of carrying out a historic mission rather than just a project for making money.”
The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs reported that the construction of dams and dredging, core parts of the four-river restoration project will be 60 percent complete by the end of this year and the second phase of the turn-key and general work will be launched in a full-fledged manner. Automatic sensors and robots will be employed to collect information on water flow and quality around the clock.
The ministry plans to seek a separate act on the support of the development of riverside areas along the four rivers to create housing, tourism and leisure space. Developers of the projected tourist attractions will be diversified, including K-water, which plans to pour 8 trillion won into the river restoration project, the Korea Land & Housing Corp. and local administrative bodies. A river management fund will be made available from proceeds from the development of riverside areas and the investments by K-water will be recouped from the fund.
In a related development, the president announced the four-river restoration project and the so-called 5+2 greater sphere development model as strategies designed to ensure balanced national development in his State of the Nation speech on Jan. 4.
The four-river project, which will cost 22 trillion won from the national budget by 2012, is expected to be a core part of the balanced national development strategy for 2010. The government expects the river restoration project to create 350,000 jobs and have production spill-over effects estimated at 38 trillion won.
As for this year, the government and K-water will spend 8 trillion won for the full-fledged implementation of the project. Regional economies will experience full spill-over effects since the river restoration project will be widespread and not limited to certain areas.
The president expressed his hope that the project on the restoration of the four rivers involving 72 city, county and ward areas will serve as watershed projects to dramatically create jobs and income in regional districts.
The river restoration project slated to be complete by 2012, is a short-term project, but the “5+2” greater sphere development model will be a mid-term development strategy for investing 126 trillion won over the next five years. nw

President Lee Myung-bak delivers a speech at a ceremony to officially mark the launch of a project to restore the Naktong River on Dec. 2