Five new dam construction projects halted after the launch of the Lee Jae-myung administration will move forward again. Amid severe climate change, rising demand for electricity and water tied to three mega-projects including the Honam fab has led the government to accept the need to expand dams as well as nuclear power. The government said last year that it would scrap seven of the 14 new dams planned under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration and decide on the remaining seven through public deliberation.
Kim Sung-hwan, minister of climate, energy and environment, said at the Government Complex Seoul on the 27th that "of the seven dams subject to public deliberation, five will be built as planned and two will be replaced with more effective alternative projects."
The projects moving ahead are the Hoeyagang Dam in Ulsan, the Amicheon Dam in Yeoncheon County, Gyeonggi Province, the Gohyeoncheon Dam in Geoje, Gyeongsangnam-do, the Byeongyeongcheon Dam in Gangjin County, Jeollanam-do, and the Jicheon Dam in Cheongyang and Buyeo counties, Chungcheongnam-do. Their combined storage capacity of 128 million tons is similar to that of the Unmun Dam, which supplies water to Daegu and to Gyeongsan, Yeongcheon and Cheongdo County in North Gyeongsang Province.
Measured by flood control capacity, all seven projects are effectively going ahead. The Gamcheon Dam in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, and the Garyecheon Dam in Uiryeong County, which will not be built, are to achieve similar effects by linking nearby dams and reservoirs or by improving river channels. For the Byeongyeongcheon and Gohyeoncheon dams, flood control capacity has in fact increased from the original plans.
The Jicheon Dam, with storage capacity of 59 million tons, is the largest of the new dams. Built on the Jicheon, a tributary of the Geum River, it is expected to greatly help resolve chronic drought in inland Chungcheongnam-do that recurs during every dry season. Daily water supply capacity was 150,000 tons under the earlier plan but has risen to 180,000 tons under this administration, a change seen as securing industrial water needed for the mega-project in the Chungcheongbuk-do region.
The Amicheon Dam, next in size at 45 million tons, will not only protect the Yeoncheon town center from flooding but also supply 80,000 tons of water a day to front-line areas such as Yeoncheon and Paju, which have had no water source of their own. Both the Jicheon and Amicheon dams are multipurpose dams. It is the first time in 16 years that the government has built a new multipurpose dam, since construction began on the Bohyeonsan Dam in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, in 2010.
The Byeongyeongcheon and Hoeyagang dams will add flood control capacity to existing drinking water dams. At Byeongyeongcheon, a dam with storage capacity of 1.2 million tons will be added 200 meters below the existing dam to guard against floods. The Hoeyagang Dam, designed to let water spill over naturally once it exceeds the maximum level, will get additional floodgates to secure flood control capacity of 8.1 million tons. The Gohyeoncheon Dam in Geoje, an area recently hit by extreme rainfall of more than 100 millimeters an hour, involves raising the dam of an agricultural reservoir and installing floodgates to convert it into a flood control dam.
For Gamcheon and Garyecheon, the government plans alternative projects that secure flood control capacity without building the dams. At Gamcheon, flood damage will be minimized by making maximum use of the storage space at the nearby Gimcheon Buhang Dam and by improving river channels. At Garyecheon, flooding in the downstream town center will be prevented by linking the Seoam Reservoir and the nearby Gami Reservoir with a channel.
The government says it can build additional dams at any time in line with the climate crisis or water demand. "Extreme droughts and heavy rains are becoming more frequent because of the climate crisis, so we must examine regional demand and supply for household, industrial and agricultural water and continue to revise and supplement our response measures," Kim said. Earlier, as water demand in the Jeollanam-do and Gwangju area rose following the announcement of the southwestern region semiconductor project, the ministry said it would raise the Dongbok Dam in Hwasun County, Jeollanam-do, to secure 250,000 tons of water a day. The previous administration had planned to build a new Dongbokcheon Dam downstream of the Dongbok Dam, but that was canceled in favor of using the existing dam.
Some projects, however, still face local opposition that could make them difficult to carry out. The Jicheon Dam, the largest of them, is meeting resistance from residents and environmental groups. A committee opposing the Jicheon Dam issued a statement the same day, saying, "The problem is a method in which a government deliberation committee made up of a small number of people decides behind closed doors," and calling for the plan to be scrapped entirely and for water management measures to address the climate crisis to be drawn up again through social consultation. A government official said the deliberation committee had six members: two each from the pro and con sides, plus the presidents of the Korea Water Resources Association and the Korean Society of Water Environment as neutral participants.
