Korea faces one of the worst environmental disasters following the burial of more than three million pigs and cows infected with foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease. Remedial action is urgent. No action will be deadly and costly.
Environment Minister Lee Maan-ee made the grotesque warning Monday. An initial survey of the 90 selected burial sites showed that 68 percent of them may collapse. It means that nearly 70 percent of the 4,000 sites will either cave in or contaminate water sources.
The minister warns the economic, social, cultural and environmental damage of the haphazard burials is beyond anybody’s imagination. Koreans might face unprecedented water contamination.
Once spring comes, the frozen underground corpses may melt, and the culled animals will start to rot. This will inevitably contaminate water and farming land, and ultimately damage the people. Downpours and floods will wash away the burial mounds and the decayed animals.
Internment was made after putting a vinyl covering on the exterior of the sites. Hillside mass burial may lead to easy crumbling. Pigs are more desperate than cows in their survival instinct. Even after mercy-killing injections they twist and turn. Vinyl wrappings were too weak to endure their violent behavior.
They might have torn away much of the fragile covering before they died. This will lead to the drainage of their decomposed bodies into water.
Authorities should take immediate action to prevent the impending disaster. Concrete exteriors must contain burial sites to preclude the leakage of the decomposing animal residue into reservoirs.
The FMD epidemic is unprecedented. Except for the southwestern Jeolla region and Jeju Island, the disease has swept the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. It has also cost more than two trillion won (about $2 billion). The faulty burials might lead to the proliferation of FMD virus.
The government’s burying of the infected animals alive has tarnished the national image. Foreign animal rights groups urged the Seoul government to stop the burial of live animals.
Government officials were totally unprepared for the death of more than three million animals. They appeared to have no anti-FMD procedures.
The government should be professional in crisis management. The military was unable to take timely action against the North’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island off the western maritime border. It took a belated move to curb surging inflation although warning has been issued since last year. The government should not underestimate the seriousness of FMD.
A cattle farmer even killed himself out of grief. Beef and pork prices are rising. Exporters of beef and pork to Korea must take extra care not to inflame the angry cattle breeders. Any sign of market-opening pressure might lead to a nationwide candlelight vigil.
The National Assembly should be bipartisan in providing funds for preventing the impending environmental disaster. Volunteers are needed to give a helping hand to the cattle industry.