Mountains and streams, we have called with the two words to represent proud heritage of our land. We have retained our history in not so broad spaces between the mountains and rivers. Provided that mounts and fields are the body, the rivers are definitely the arteries vitalizing its body with blood circulation. From what problems with those precious arteries of our lands, are there two directly-opposed opinions conflicting? One who claim the restoration and the other side who insist intact preservation, who’s right?
Once I reminisce about the sweet memories of the brook of the Naeseong Stream many fishes of dark sleepers, goby minnow, stone morokos and crayfishes in my rural hometown more than fifty years before, only with that memory, it seems that we support those who say preservations for nature.
Urban rivers are going alive, meanwhile the others going dead. That is present reality
However, let us think in different way.
The Japanese tourists visiting Seoul often say that they were overwhelmed by the flowing scale of the Han River. That riverside was a merely sandy beach with deposit soil, in some decades ago; moreover that time’s Han River couldn’t sustain the city of Seoul where almost half of metropolitans live in. Even those who fiercely oppose ‘the Four Rivers Restoration Project’ are not free from squandering the valuable water artificially impounded.
Almost 100 years ago, a certain foreign missionary described in his record that the inside of Seoul was filled with the smell of excrement things. The Cheonggye-cheon(stream), with meaning of ‘pure brook’, was a stinky ditch. But now it is totally different. The other inner-city streams of Anyang-cheon, Tan-cheon and Yangjae-cheon have changed with new faces attracting the flocks of ducks, fishes, and birds. On their riverside, citizens are start to running alongside, with breathing the fresh airs. While the inner-city streams get going revitalized, but in the local ones, fishes are going die. From what is the paradox of reality like this occurred?
‘The opposition for opposing’, is it the historical inevitability?
Forty years ago, there were ‘patriotic politicians’ fiercely opposed to the construction of Gyeongbu Highway(connecting Seoul to Busan) with ‘concerns’ about the dissipation of the country’s wealth and destruction of nature. Actually, after the completion, even they rode the wave of the benefits to crisscross the entire campaign rallies. But I have never heard a voice of the repentance for their past undue oppositions. Whatever it is money or water, some people are good at consuming; and opposing for opposing on the productive things. Is it the historical inevitability?
Since Korean geographical features show many mountainous areas so that even much amount of rainfall, unfortunately concentrated on short summer time, go directly to the sea so fast. Moreover, because of the extremely biased annual rainfall on summer, the reality of water source control is not easy. Therefore, unless we reinforce the dams, weirs and reservoirs to impound additional 1000 million tons of water, experts say, it would be inevitable disaster of water shortage. Another bad news is that some rivers have already been 5th grade-water quality due to the agricultural pesticides, chemical fertilizer, stockbreeding contaminants and urban wastewater inflow. So the rice from the lower areas of the rivers cannot be even used as forage. How can we neglect these perfectly dead rivers?
Expectation for the whole-new settlements named ‘Riverside areas’
The key point of the Project is to secure the water impounded, and to make water clean by preventing the inflow of urban and rural wastewater.
Like these, the ultimate purpose is at the secure of new riverside settlement. That is my humble opinion. Meanwhile, settlement of cities have developed along the extent of railways and roads, now, we have to prepare another clean and beautiful settlement on our forgotten riverside areas which will be integrated with transportation and information. The new areas could be the reconstitution of previous urban environment or the complex cultural space consisted of new towns, tourism, and sports. As long as we do not live in pre-industrial and agricultural ages, ‘With no maintenance, there is no natural preservation’, that is the property of present and future civilization we would live. The bhikkhuni who struggled to preserve the rare species of salamander in Cheonseong Mountain, and the certain philosophic doctor fought against the Saemangeum land reclamation project with living in a mud hut in the construction site, they sometimes remain the vitality in recent history. Nevertheless, the dying rivers do not permit us a time to enjoy the lazy shows.
Writer: RYU Chun-Su (an architect, CEO of Igong Construction Co. / Designed Hanngyeryeong expressway rest area, Seoul 2002 World Cup Stadium, and so forth)
