A piece in the JoongAng says water shortages in regions throughout the country don’t result from a lack of water but rather from the country’s poor storage facilities. Also cites resistence by environmental groups to the construction of dams as one cause for the lack of sufficient reservoirs.
Goh, a resident of Hwangji-dong in the city of Taebaek, Gangwon, said tap water is only available for three hours in the morning, and the family has been doing laundry just twice a week.
The rusty water might be tolerable for laundry, but the Gohs do not dare to drink it. And the limited supply of water in the morning means no water for the rest of the day; the family does not feel free to use the toilet at night.
I’ve visited friends – many of them monks who spend part of the year in remote rural areas – who say that during certain seasons their homes are unlivable due to the lack of water. It’s hard to fathom living in Seoul how dramatically different life can be outside the capital.
According to the corporation’s latest report, the country will be short of at least 800 million tons of waters by 2011, even if water resources are efficiently saved.
“Because of climate change, the severity of floods and droughts in Korea will worsen in the future,” said Professor Yi Jae-eung of Civil Systems Engineering at Ajou University. “It is imperative for us to build more dams, because that’s the surest way to secure water.”
“The current water shortage around the nation is the result of delaying dam construction for the past decade due to political debates,” Yi said.
Filed under: Daily life, Environment, Headlines | Tagged: Environment, Korea
