National Rivers of 3000 km to be protected

Including the Han, Nakdong, Geum, Yeongsan River, 61 national rivers of total 3,000km became to be under nation-level maintenance. The Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs is going to submit the revised plan with contents about deprival of previously allocated authority into local municipalities for fluvial improvement enterprises in case of public needs. This emergence of the revised regulation seems natural consequence based on the consideration that not a few areas would be less taken care while some areas stay protected under special law of waterfront area. Then, the comparatively neglected areas could be vulnerable to unsustainable approaches in blind spot. The existing regulation of streams classifies that National River and Local River; the former maintained by the Minister of Land while the latter by local governors. According to that, total 2,979㎞ of 61 streams with 55 tributaries connected to four major rivers are designated by the law. Among that, the sheer section of the four rivers except tributaries and branches is 1,600km; meanwhile local stream is 26,860km long. The Ministry of Land plans to designate K-Water as the dedicated organization for organic and integrated management of rivers with 16 weirs, dams and diverse fluvial facilities. Concerning the other riparian areas and national rivers of the rest, government will delegate the authority to the local municipalities