2011 World Water Day

Crucial importance of water and dwindling water resources around the world remembered in a ceremony

scene of 2011 World Water Day ceremony held on March 22 in Ttuksom in Seoul with Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik leading the dignitaries and attendees from NGOs and academic circles.

Commemorating the 2011 World Water Day on March 22, a ceremony took place in Seoul with the participation by Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik, Minister Lee Manee of the Ministry of Environment, Vice-Minister of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Chung Chang-soo and other attendees from NGOs and academic circles totaling some 1,600 people.
In an attempt to prevent the exhaustion of water resources and water pollution and emphasize the importance of water, the designation of the World Water Day was declared at the UN General Assembly in December 1992. Since 1995, the Korean government has held its own commemorating ceremony. As this is the fourth year since President Lee proclaimed the vision of "Now carbon green growth's in 2008, the main theme of this year was decided to be "realthy Water, Green Korea." At the ceremony, the Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik in his speech underlined the importance of water management to adapt to climate change, introduce the necessity of the Four Rivers Restoration Project as a way to adapt to climate change and ask the public to actively join in water saving campaign.
In addition, major guests including the Prime Minister and the Minister of Environment declared the fact that keeping water healthy is essential to create green Korea.
Local governments and local environmental regional offices designated the month of March as an event period for the World Water Day and plan to publicize the significance of water through diverse commemorating ceremonies, seminars and training programs. For example, the National Institute of Environmental Research opened an international symposium under the title "Nuture water quality management after Four Rivers Restoration Project's at the Seoul Trade Exhibition & Convention (SETEC), Seoul on March 21. Also, 2011 Gyeongnam Water Expo will be held at Changwon Convention Center and Gyeongnam Water Forum will be held by six fields including tap water.
Korea Water Resources Corp.(K-water) had a marvelous year last year and this year, the company will have a big event in the opening of the Arabet Canal linking Seoul and Incheon in October among its plans for this year.
Last year, K-water whittled down its debt to 75.6 percent of its total assets, which amounted to 184.844 trillion won and debts down to 79.60 trillion won. The company's capital stood at 105.237 trillion won as of the end of last year. The company marked a total income of 2.313,9 trillion won last year and net profit of 142.1 billion won with expenses amounting to 2.171,8 billion won.
The budget for this year has been set at 8.419,2 trillion won, up 5.7 percent from last year including investment funds of 6.500 trillion won, up 1.1 percent from last year and 78.8 billion won for other expenses, up 5.5 percent from last year. 411.1 billion won has been allocated for other projects, up 282.8 percent from last year.
The Arabet Canal project was 69 percent completed as of February with the work on inside walls of the terminals completed and the work on the waters gates has began from February. The dredging and shore protection projects except on main waterways and bridges have been finished.
K-water's major projects include the Four Rivers Restoration Project and the completion and opening of the Arabet Canal linking Seoul and Incheon.
This year, the rivers restoration project will complete on Han, Naktong, Yeongsan and Geum rivers before the rainy season so that he annual flooding in those rivers can be prevented with the investment of 8 trillion won.
The river restoration project has been divided into 33 smaller projects with Naktong River having the largest number of projects at 18 followed by Yeongsan River with seven projects, and four each for Han and Geum rivers. K-water has been directly taking charge of 13 projects, while the rest of them or 20 projects have been assigned to private construction firms and local administrative organizations. K-water plans to complete seven projects on streams by the end of this year with 68 percent completed as of Feb. 29 and dredging and weir construction work are being planned to be completed fully before the rainy reason, which is July in Korea.
The river restoration project involves the construction of 20 water gates before the rainy season starts and already eight of them were built during 2010. It also includes the installation of power generators using water and start commercial electricity generation in the second half of this year.
K-water will also built automatic flood warning systems in the four major rivers by measuring rain falls and water levels on real time so that flood damage can be prevented along the towns by those rivers. K-water will from time to time hold exercises to prevent flood damages and operate the flood damage monitoring rooms at key locations along those rivers. nw

-Photo by courtesy of K-water