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The following Hankyoreh report(7.10) illustrates how the MB administration (possibly??^^) is trying to shit the S. Korean public:

Japanese experts say Four Rivers sites

resemble canal construction

The experts question the rationale behind the intense dredging and high number of weirs being constructed

Japanese river and stream experts who visited the site of the Four Major Rivers Restoration project said they understand it to be part of canal construction, no a measure to prevent floods or secure water resources.

On Friday, some 15 Japanese, including environmental movement NGOs, civil engineering and environmental law scholars and environmental lawyers launched their second three-day, two-night on-site investigation of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project with Korea Wetlands NGO Network. The first was conducted in March. Kyoto University Emeritus Professor Imamoto Hirotake, a 73-year-old river engineering scholar, visited the Nakdong River from the Sangju Weir to the Dalseong Weir, where the Four Rivers project is in full swing. Hirotake said he could not understand at all why someone would do so much dredging and construct so many Weirs at once to prevent floods, boost water quality or secure water resources. He said he understood it to be part of the canal-building process.

He said if the construction is not being carried out for a canal, as the government has stated, then within a decade, demands will grow for the levees unhelpful to preventing floods and improving water quality to be removed and the river to be returned to its natural state. He warned that while construction is underway, if a flood strikes, the levees blocking the flow of the river could fall like dominoes and create a major disaster downstream.

Endo Yasuo, an activist with a water resource development issue group in Japan, said the South Korean government needs to closely consider whether it can maintain and activate without a hitch, particularly in the flooding season, eight movable weirs on the Nakdong River alone. The visitors were at a complete loss for words seeing Gyeongcheondae, a site on the river known for its beautiful scenery, and the Haepyeong wetlands, a resting spot for migratory birds, turned into desert-like sand dunes due to heavy equipment. Lawyer Hori Ryochi, joint head of Ramsar Network Japan, said the construction is already largely underway, but for the ecological destruction to stop, the construction must be suspended and the fundamental issues calmly discussed.



These individuals were at the lead in resolving major environmental issues in Japan such as suspending the construction of the Shitara Dam and bringing about a lawsuit against the land reclamation project at the Ariake Sea, the model for South Korea’s Saemangeum project. Along with South Korean environmental groups, they plan to point out the problems of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project at the Convention on Biological Diversity conference, set to launch in Japan in October.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/429771.html