6 dam gates open for 30 days

Gates of the Changnyeong-Haman Dam on the Nakdong River in Gyeongsang Province are seen open Thursday. Gates of five other dams on the country’s four major rivers were also opened. Yonhap

By Lee Kyung-min

The government opened the gates of six out of 16 new dams built under the former President Lee Myung-bak administration for his Four Major Rivers Refurbishment Project, Thursday.

This follows instructions from President Moon Jae-in who pledged an overhaul of what he called an “anti-environment plan.”

The Ministry of Environment said the opening of the gates will lower water levels by up to 1 meter, with the process expected to take up to 10 hours.

The six dams to remain open for the next 30 days are the Gangjeong-Goryeong, Dalseong, Hapcheon-Changnyeong and Changnyeong-Haman dams on the Nakdong River, the Gongju Dam on the Geum River and the Joonsan Dam on the Youngsan River.

The order to let the stored water flow reflected criticism both from the public and environmentalists that stagnant water inside the dams was the main cause of algal blooming, sarcastically referred to as “green tea latte.” Algal blooms are known to cause deaths of animals and fish, and pose a major harm to the ecosystem.

The ministry decided to open the gates on a trial basis to gauge the degree of algal bloom presence by comparing it with previous years’ data for the dams which showed a sharp increase in the environmental hazard phenomenon in early June.

If the 30-day measure fails to show any improvement, the ministry will revise or scrap the plan to partially open the remaining 10 dams.

The government dismissed concerns that opening the gates will pose a threat to farmers nearby suffering from an ongoing drought when they need a large quantity of water in June.

According to the ministry, the gates are mostly in the southern Jeolla and Gyeongsang regions while severe drought-stricken regions are in Chungcheong and the southern part of the Gyeonggi region.

However, farmers criticize the government for listening only to the voices of the environmentalists whose lives have nothing to do with farming.

“They do not know how crucially water in a drought determines the outcome of our farming. We are worried that not enough rain is expected this year, and releasing the water right before when we need it most seems a decision ignorant of how farming works,” a farmer in Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province said.

Criticism remains that the measure was hastily adopted without fully considering possible side effects.

If the water level gets too low, pumping stations, which currently are not buried deep enough underground to offset the new level, could malfunction. This is because air would travel into the pumps where only water should be, compromising its intended function and settings equipped to deliver only water.

The Four Rivers Project, a signature project under former President Lee, remains the county’s biggest and most controversial river refurbishment program. Between 2007 and 2012, the government spent 22.2 trillion won ($17.3 billion) of taxpayers’ money, building 16 dams on the country's four major rivers.

While Lee said the dams on the country’s four major rivers would prevent flooding and droughts and boost tourism, few academic assessments or media reports were published to verify that such aims were achieved.