hankyoreh

sweeping over a temporary wall for the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. (Photo by Kim Jung-hyo)

By Koo Dae-sun, Senior Staff Writer　

Nearly fifty thousand residents of Gumi, North Gyeongsang, have suffered the misfortune of another water supply interruption. The cause is the breaking of a riverbed supply pipe amid increased flow on the Nakdong River stemming from the Four Major Rivers Project. While the city and the Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-Water) are supplying water by truck, the short supply has led to major inconveniences for residents.

The K-Water team that oversees water services for the Gumi area announced the rupturing of a water supply pipe below the Nakdong River bed that carries water collected from the Haepyeong intake site from the filtration plant to the Yangpo supply reservoir in Gumi. The pipe in question measures 800 meters in length with a diameter of 0.8 to 1.1 meters, and to be located at a depth of 2.8 meters under the riverbed.

Installed in 2004, the pipe is not timeworn. Originally, it was buried eight to nine meters below the bed, but the depth was diminished as the riverbed was removed to depths of up to six meters through large-scale dredging as part of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project.

“We are estimating that as flow speed increased owing to dredging, this had an impact on the supply pipe,” said Gumi area project Team Leader Park Byeong-don. “Given the strength of current and the swelling of the waters due to rain, the restoration will likely take around two months.”

“It looks as though the riverbed was stripped through excessive dredging, and water supply pipe underneath was exposed through the effects of cumulative erosion,” said Kwandong University Civil Engineering Professor Park Chang-kun. “There is a good chance that part of the conduit was lost after it was unable to withstand the pressure from waters swollen due to wet season rains.”

On May 8, around 500 thousand residents of the Gumi and Gimcheon areas and Gumi National Industrial Complex workplaces suffered a major inconvenience when their water supply was cut off for five days following the collapse of a temporary dam put in place due to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, which was carried out in the vicinity of Gumi’s intake site. Residents have filed a lawsuit for damages from K-Water and the city of Gumi.

In a statement, the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements (KFEM) said the location was “predicted to be at serious risk for loss in a May study by a joint citizen investigation team, which found a Haepyeong intake site pipe to be exposed.”

“Rather than going all in on its event to mark the completion of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, the government needs to examine all matters connected with citizen safety,” the statement continued.

On Thursday, a temporary dam gave out under the pressure of swollen river waters upstream from the Four Major Rivers construction site for the Gangcheon Weir on the South Han River in Yeoju County, Gyeonggi. The dam was swept away in a rapid current at around 7:30 a.m., losing around half its 300-meter length after a little over an hour. Another temporary dam at the Gangcheon Weir construction site was swept away on May 1.

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