[Editorial] The need for a real investigation into Four Major Rivers Project boondoggle

Water leaks out from a 5-centimeter crack in the concrete wing wall of the Gumi Weir on the Nakdong River, part of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project (Courtesy of Prof. Park Chang-geun)

A commission set up to investigate and assess the Four Major Rivers Project released its findings on Dec. 23. The project was a partial success, with some aspects simply needing additional work, the commission found.

These findings are sure to be criticized as a poor assessment based on a poor investigation. In short, they demonstrate the limits of a commission whose members were drawn from academia and organizations with a stake in the project, excluding the independent experts and civic groups that had drawn attention to the downsides of the project.

If this was the best the commission could do, the National Assembly will have to carry out a parliamentary investigation into the Four Major River Project.

In the report, the commission‘s assessment of the safety of the project’s facilities contradicts its final conclusion about the project‘s success. The commission said that it had found leaks in the concrete riverbeds at six of the 16 weirs in the project. At the same time, the commission concluded, there were no serious safety concerns.

In addition, the commission discovered that the stagnation resulting from the weirs and the dredging of the rivers was worsening water quality, effectively acknowledging that the project was causing algal blooms in the rivers. It also recognized that the ecological parks and rivers that had been created as part of the project had in fact damaged wildlife habitats.

Despite this, the commission concluded that, over all, there were no problems with the project, endorsing the position of the government and the ruling party.

Examined point by point, the commission’s findings reveal signs of a shoddy investigation leading to an illogical conclusion. The commission itself admitted that it had been unable to adequately investigate certain topics because of limited time and funding. It also acknowledged that its investigation had been fundamentally limited, since political and judicial issues had been excluded from the scope of its assessment.

While the Saenuri Party (NFP) is acting as if the commission’s report has cleared up all of the allegations surrounding the Four Major Rivers Project, if anything it only underlines the need for a parliamentary investigation the issue.

The Four Major Rivers Project was a destructive initiative in which the government spent 22 trillion won (US$19.88 billion) digging up the rivers that had been passed down to us from our ancestors. We can no longer delay finding out why this project was promoted and identifying the people responsible for it.

The National Assembly needs to set up a fact-finding body that represents civic groups and experts to look into all of these accusations, and it also needs to devise measures to repair the damage that has been done to the rivers.

　

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