Asia Times: Dammed if we do, dammed if we don't



	July 10, 1999	atimes.com

The Koreas

Dammed if we do, dammed if we don't
By Ahn Mi-young

SEOUL - First the residents of the village in Yongwol, South Korea lost all their farming subsidies and cheap loans. Then the government budget for paving roads in the areasuddenly disappeared. Deep in debt and sinking into poverty, the people in thiscommunity some 150 kilometers southeast of Seoul were fast running out ofoptions.

They have therefore become among the most ardent supporters of a long-planned dam that will be built on their land, even if it means the permanent loss of their property. After all, they reason, they will be compensated by the government while the dam itself will help solve Seoul's water shortage and flooding problems.

But these 256 families, along with the Ministry of Constructionand Transportation and the state-owned Korea Water ResourcesManagement Corp., that are pushing for the dam are up againstenvironmentalists and the rest of the people in the Yongwolregion. The debate over the proposed Yongwol dam has been going on forthe last 10 years. It intensified recently, however, as supportersrenewed fierce lobbying to push the project through.

Korea Water Resources President Choi Jong-geun now warns that injust a decade, South Korea will be short of about two billiontons of water each year. Other officials say more dams areneeded to stop the yearly flooding that leaves hundreds of peoplewounded or dead and causes huge property damage or losses.

''Given these two facts,'' said Kang Jong-soo, who leads the damdivision of the Korea Water Resources, ''the dam construction is aprerequisite to solving the projected water shortage and tominimize flooding damage."

Dam opponents have heard all of this before. But while they used tobe able to ignore such arguments, anti-dam activists say thegovernment of President Kim Dae-jung is stepping up the campaignto get construction of the Yongwol dam underway.

The Yongwol project is one of several dams that the governmentsays South Korea needs to build by 2011 at a total cost of $14 billion. But the Yongwol dam has been of particular interest to officials since it is expected to be able to store up to 700million tons of water in its 330-meter long, 100-meter highreservoir. Officials say this would be a valuable water supply for the 15million residents of Seoul. It could also lower the water level ofthe South Han River in Seoul by up to 21 centimeters, reducing theprobability of flooding.

The dam, supposed to be completed by 2004, would be built over theTong River in Yongwol. The Tong is a tributary of the South Han River that flows downtoward the capital and crosses Seoul. It is also a 60-kilometer longwaterway that snakes through rugged limestone terrain in themountainous counties of eastern Kangwon Province.

Anti-dam activists say the dam will take the life out of theTong, where young people usually take wild rafting rides. KangwonUniversity professor Kang Tae-sok added that the dam will meanother ''heartbreaking losses'' such as the disappearance of theotter that in South Korea can be found only in Yongwol, as well ashundreds of ancient caves in the area. ''We are obliged to hand down our unspoilt ecological treasure to the next generations,'' he said.

The area's beauty attracts many tourists who take rafting andexploration trips. Queried So Yong-jae, 50, who runs a restaurantthere: ''If our town is buried under, how can we make a living?"

In truth, there are already seven dams within Kangwon, which have led tothe displacement of 29,000 people in the past five decades.Activists add there has been untold environmental destruction inthe dam sites.

But present Kangwon provincial governor Kim Jin-sun has takenanother tack in opposing the dam, saying that it is not ''safe.'' Environmentalists have said that the ground in the dam site is too weak to support such a giant structure. The construction and transportation ministry, however, say a two-year long survey itconducted shows otherwise.

In view of the row, Kim in April ordered that another survey bedone on the dam site, but this time by an international team. ''Wemust ensure an unbiased outcome [on which to base] our decision onthe Yongwol dam construction,'' he said.

Many people, however, say it would be best to forget the damaltogether. Even lawmaker Song Hyon-sup, who belongs to the ruling party,said, ''Instead of building the dam, we can resolve the watershortage problem by staging a water-saving campaign, or replacingageing water pipelines that are leaking about 15 percent of thetotal water supply."

In late March, the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement(KFEM) ended a 33-day sit-in protest against the dam. The California-based International Rivers Network supported the KFEM demonstrators, adding that ''Seoul City has an obligation to take into account the opinion of 75 percent of Seoul citizens whosay they are opposed to the project."

Added Worldwatch Institute President Lester Brown recently, ''Iwas surprised that the Korean government still wants to build thedam. This is [against] the international trend away fromobstructing the natural flow of rivers."

Yet the people who stand to lose the most - the 256 families whowill be displaced by the dam - steadfastly support the project, largely because they feel they have no choice. Lee Yong-sok, the leader of the affected families' pro-dammovement said, ''We may be blasted by our own progeny for sellingour hometown for a few bucks.'' Justifying his stance, he mourned, ''But we have been so heavily indebted that the compensation money is the only way we will survive. If our village is so lovely and so precious, let them [the anti-dam activists] live here andlet us leave, please."

(Inter Press Service)

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