A village became a topic as it adopted new village name. I t ref lected the favorabl y changed atmosphere in the village since the kickoff of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. The village is located in 4km upstream from the Hanam Weir (belongs to the Nakdong River sector), it is in Ugang-ri, Docheon-myeon, Changnyeong-gun, Gyeongnam Province in administrative district. However, it came to have new village name ‘Gangmaeul’ (River Village) from July 26. It had been called as ‘Araet maeul’ (Lower Village, literally) without any specific meaning or etymological history. However, as the river flowing in front of the village got to be a part of the target area for dredging work, a change started to come to this bucolic riverside village. Many villagers witnessed that there are growing amount of fishery which were scarce before the Project, and most of all, flood trash from upstream area was remarkably diminished. In another word, the villagers say that it is a pleasant change they hadn’t before. Moreover, even though the increase of precipitation in summer rainy season, anxiety for inundation threat has been quite reduced, they say unanimously. Hence, the village people submitted requisition form to Changnyeong County about renaming their village, and finally acquired approval from municipality in July 19. A village resident, Mr. Kim Yang-su (60) said, “The restored riverside environment would be an attraction those who want to have dreamed a pastoral life to both residents and visitors. We had every reason to rename our village.”
