On November 22, the former prime minister, Thaksin who visited Korea as a private citizen on November 21 paid a visit to the Ipo Weir site of the Han River under the guidance of Myung Pil Shim, Minister of the Office of Naitonal River Restoration. After the project briefing by Choong Jae Lee, administer of Seoul Regional Construction and Management, the former prime minister, Thaksin asked a succession of questions. “How was the flood damage around the area every summer?” “Where were all the dredged soil and sand placed?” “Is fishing allowed in the newly created waterfront spaces?” “Where did the farmers and their families who used to live here all move to?” “What kinds of measures were used to protect fish species that used to live in the river?” “What is the generating capacity of the small hydroelectric power plants?” and so on and so forth. The Minister Myung Pil Shim answered a question after a question for close to an hour.
After the briefing, the former Minister Thaksin took a look inside the small hydroelectric power plant of Ipo Weir and toured throughout the water gate winch and artificial fish ways as walking on the pedestrian bridge along with other regular visitors. After the tour, he had a lunch in the nearby restaurant for grilled chicken along with Korean rice wine and left the scene. On November 23, the former Minister Thaksin also visited the Sejong Weir site of the Geum River and Korea Water Resources Corporation located in Daejeon.
Thailand Requests Korea for River Maintenance Technology
On November 23 when the former Minister Thaksin toured around the Sejong Weir of the Geum River, he said his opinion on the project, “It made me think a lot (after visiting the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project site) and I can see that it is a successful business. The flood problem in Thailand is so serious that it may be deemed to receive a lot of help to improve the situation if applying the experience of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project.” He also added, “If there could have been river maintenance projects in Thailand as early as in Korea, the flood damage could had been reduced to one-fifth of today.” He said to send documents and information relating the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project that he obtained through this visit for his brother (Ingrak Chinnawat, Thai Prime Minister) to review.
At the breakfast meeting that the former Prime Minister Thaksin had with vice presidents of the domestic construction companies, he said, “I believe that Korean construction companies with advanced experience and high technology could help Thailand a lot in the river improvement project.” Because of the torrential rains that lasted for 3 months starting from August, more than 70 percent of the land in Thailand was flooded. About 400 casualties were reported and the economic loses was amounted to KWN 18 trillion. As a result, the Thai government is planning the massive flood control project with a total of 900 billion baht (about KWN 32 trillion). It was known that the former Minister Thaksin is firm on the river maintenance project saying, “It is necessary to repair flood damage every year by major maintenance for 25 rivers across the country.”
< Thaksin, the former prime minister (third from the left), Myung Pil Shim, Minister of the Office of Naitonal River Restoration (second from the left), and the officials walking on the pedestrian bridge of Ipo Weir >
