Once a lifegiving river, now a lake of death

 

I don't really watch TV. Nevertheless, I recently watched the KBS program "In-Depth 60 Minutes" broadcast on Jan. 26. It covered the water quality crisis at Saemangeum Lake in North Jeolla Province, which resulted from the Saemangeum reclamation project.

This national policy project aims to reclaim an area of land as large as two-thirds of Seoul from the sea. As a result of making Saemangeum Lake by blocking the mouth of the Mangyeong River and the Dongjin River with a seawall, the quality of the water confined in the seawall drastically worsened. Water that does not flow becomes stagnant.

Saemangeum has become a lake of death due to a lack of oxygen in the water. After the construction of the seawall, the lack of oxygen led to the mass death of porpoises in the lake in 2011. In 2018 and 2023, fish died en masse there also.

From 2000 to 2020, the government spent more than 4 trillion won to improve the lake's water quality. Nonetheless, its water quality didn't improve. When the water gates of the seawall open for a very limited time, the black water of the lake flows into the sea, polluting the sea.

"The substances that are now causing water pollution in the lake had been food for living things on the tidal flats that the reclamation project destroyed," according to a researcher who made a speech at a rally held in Seoul last November to restore the Saemangeum tidal flats. He said that if the rivers flow, the water quality problem will be solved.

A fisher who lives in a fishing village inside the Saemangeum seawall said, "The water quality will improve if the water gates of the seawall are open all the time." Oh Dong-pil, the head of the Saemangeum Citizens Ecological Group, said that the level of biodiversity in the Saemangeum area was high from 2006 to 2010 when the water gates were always open.

Although the water quality issue still needs to be resolved, Saemangeum was designated as a specialized complex for storage batteries last year, which are needed for smartphones, electric cars, drones and more to work. The production of the batteries will generate wastewater that contains poisonous heavy metals. A plan to prevent additional water pollution is necessary.

Would you close your eyes and imagine that you are a river? You have changed from raindrops to a small stream and then a river. You've come a long way. You know where you should go next. The rivers that formed Saemangeum Lake couldn't flow freely into the sea for too long.

The Saemangeum reclamation project has continued for over 30 years, costing more than 22 trillion won so far. The project is planned to continue until 2050. The government will re-establish the Saemangeum Master Plan by next year. The plan should be one that restores the ecosystem there by freeing the confined rivers.

Kim Sun-ae (blog.naver.com/everythingchanges) wrote "Old Potato, New Potato" and translated "Little Lord Fauntleroy."