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| Activist Kim Jong-sul speaks during an interview with a local news media outlet about the four-river project in Seoul, last year. Courtesy of Kim Jong-sul |
By Kim Se-jeong
Former President Lee Myung-bak's four-river project changed the life of Kim Jong-sul, an environmental activist, forever.
As the owner of a small newspaper company in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province at the time the project was being widely promoted, Kim, 54, wrote extensively about it, which eventually cost him his company.
Started in 2008 and completed in 2012, the four-river project saw sand from the riverbanks scooped up, loaded and taken away by trucks and 16 barrages installed in a bid to control water flow in the four major rivers ― the Nakdong, the Han, the Geum and the Youngsan. Kim lives close to the Geum River.
"President Lee claimed keeping the water behind the barrages would make the rivers cleaner. To my knowledge, that couldn't be true," Kim said.
As the construction began, he and his colleagues went out to the construction sites to try to talk to people, but they weren't welcome. "They threatened me and sometimes beat me up. I felt that something was wrong," Kim recalled.
His paper carried many stories critical of the project which drew negativity from others in his community.
"People around me said I was being too sensitive. They tried to convince me by saying the project would bring in money to the area. Some were angry and told me to leave town."
His stance led to his company's revenue drying up and in 2011, he had to shut down the business. He said he could have made compromises to save the company but "didn't feel right doing that."
A story of his parents was the motivation for his reluctance to make compromises
"I had a big mountain in the back of my village when I was growing up. A local cement company had quarried the mountain, generating a huge amount of dust. I was too young to know what that meant, but after I lost my lovely dad to lung cancer and my mom to a respiratory illness, I realize the quarrying slowly killed my parents," Kim said. "By the same token, if people drink polluted water or if farmers use polluted water to grow vegetables, what would happen to people in the long run?"
By the time the four-river project was completed its total cost came to 22 trillion won of taxpayers' money. He said it didn't take long to prove the fallacy of the claims made about the four-river project.
All four rivers began seeing rampant algae bloom, a common phenomenon seen in stagnating water. For people near the Nakdong, it was particularly harmful because it was their source of drinking water.
"Also I found so many Tubifex worms in sediments in the Geum River. Same for the Nakdong River. Tubifex is a yardstick for water pollution. If you see them a lot as I did in the Geum, that means the water is undrinkable."
Things changed since President Moon Jae-in was sworn in in 2017. So far, four barrages have either been opened or lowered. Discussions are underway on what to do with the 12 remaining barrages.
Since his company closed, he dedicated his life to monitoring the rivers. He makes money by contributing stories to Ohmynews.
"My real dream is to see all the barrages removed from the rivers. But I know it's unrealistic. At least, I would like to see more barrages open so that the rivers' ecosystems can recover," he said.
