Six local government bodies in the Paldang Lake basin have agreed to a system of controlling the pollution of water quality; Gapyeong, Gwangju, Namyangju, Yangpyeong, Yeoju, and Yongin. Icheon is missing from the arrangement, but it still means that the Han, Nakdong, Geumgang, and Yeongsan rivers now all have an established framework for managing water quality with contamination controls.
Phase one of the Han River's "special measures" ends this year, so it is fortunate that this new program will be adopted before the year is over. It is also very significant that local governments and their citizens have spent more than a year debating what to do and decided to suppress the desire to engage in development. They made the decision on their own, without being unilaterally forced to by the Ministry of the Environment.
They've only agreed in principle, however, and there's still much that needs to be done. Having each local government body calculate pollution limits, so as to maintain and improve the quality of Paldang's water, and then implement detailed plans to keep that under control is easier said than done. They say the water there is close to being Grade 1, but that's the case when biological oxygen demand (BOD) is the standard; if you look at the bigger picture and include chemical oxygen demand (COD), nitrogen, and phosphorus water quality remains at Grade 3. If those additional standards are not included in the limits program it will just be ignoring the problem.
Even if the program is pursued as just as planned that doesn't mean everything is resolved, because no matter how the Ministry of the Environment may try it is still terribly lacking in the strength it needs to stop the development pressure that is so strong. While it was wrestling with local governments and citizens over implementing limits and controls, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation was relaxing various regulations in place in the greater capital region. The quality of the water in Paldang Lake will not improve thorough environmental policy alone. If the 20 million people living in the greater capital region are going to be able to drink clean water and not worry about what comes out of their faucets, there needs to be greater support from the whole of the national government, including from the Ministry of Construction and Transportation.
The Hankyoreh, 27 September 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Better Paldang Water Standards |
