LEE Yong-Woo, the governor of Buyeo County
The Geum River Revitalization to bring local economy’s new take-off
What is the potential which made entire Buyeo County people into unanimity for the Project?
Since severe sediments accumulation on the riverbed and water quality deterioration, dredge and rearrangement of the Geum River has been a long-term objective. It might sound plausible in a flash; naysayers insist that there is contamination damage not in mainstream but in tributaries. However, on the contrary, because of mainstream’s malfunction, so the tributaries could not function properly. The level of mainstream’s riverbed was higher than that of tributaries. So how could it flow naturally? There are 39 drainage facilities supervised by Buyeo County and another 50 by Korea Rural Community Corporation. Therefore total amounts are 89 overall. That is the top in quantity among local governments. Letting overraised riverbed stand as it is, should we continue building pumping sites to send upstream? Current circumstances know well our local residents.
It is heard that there is high opposition atmosphere in ‘Chungnam Special Committee of Reconsideration of the Project’. How about that?
Officially the local government of Chungnam had announced that many were against the Project. However that was quite far from the actual state here. I don’t want my remarks to be reflected as if it against the policy direction of Chungnam Province, but the surveyed result by special committee is apparently obvious that it was mislead. So we made another survey within our Buyeo County on approximate 12,000 residents. It was necessary to certify how they feel about the appropriateness of the Project of which our county is in dire need. It was just as we expected. 70% voted yes. Also 70% answered they are aware of the Project. That means almost ratio of those who know about the Project voted in favor of the Project. The rest 30% also seemed that they did not had appropriate information of the Project so that they couldn’t express right decisions. Consequently, public sentiment of Buyeo County shows overwhelming agreement. River is public property. Those who know the river are the residents living around there. Improper is the opposition based upon the mislead survey on Cheonan and Seosan city where has nothing with major rivers like us.
What kind of added value the Project will bring to Buyeo County?
We are planning to open maritime tourism era with concept of Sea power. We have already scheme of groundbreaking use. If rivers are revitalized, both tourism and agriculture are to be developed. Regional economy activation naturally gets to tag along. It would surely help for selling special crops from riverside farmlands. Finally, after the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, regional economy will meet golden opportunity.
