It is disturbing to see that certain developing countries are rushing to copy South Korea’s environmentally damaging Four Rivers project:-
K-water to share experience abroad
By Lee Hyo-sik Korea Times August 2012
The state-run Korea Water Resources Corp. (K-Water), which successfully completed an ambitious restoration project of the country’s four major rivers from 2010 to 2011, is now seeking to share its water management know-how with Thailand, China and Morocco. The company has formed a consortium with six construction firms, including Hyundai and GS, to win an $11 billion contract from Thailand for refurbishing the latter’s 25 river systems. It also wants to become a consultant for Morocco to help it more effectively manage its scarce water resources, while advising China’s Yinchuan City, an agricultural hub which often suffers flooding as a result of the overflowing Yellow River, on how to design and build various flood prevention infrastructures.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2012/08/182_117711.html
Will these nations conduct environmental impact assessment surveys before undertaking such projects?
Is there even any credible independent monitoring of the effects of the korean four rivers project to reference, before they agree to such massive and expensive projects?
Thanks for this.
Perhaps this post was a result of the more recent article in the Korea Times, describing further efforts to persudae the Thai national government of the merits and skills of those companies that were involved in the deep-dredging, damming and clearance of riverine vegetation along many of the nation’s rivers – onverting much remaining natural wetland into sterile parkland:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2012/11/116_124462.html
We are aware from a previous letter (back in August) that the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BirdLife in Thailand) are fully aware of the Four Rivers project in the ROK, and that they appear to share many similar concerns with all those who value their rivers natural and biodiverse, rather than canalised and artificial. From some discussion, it also appears that many experts in Thailand also question the need for such projects, as they allege that last year’s flooding was caused much more by mismanagement of river flows than by the actual state of the rivers themselves.
For some more on this, please refer back to this blogpost (easy to overlook as lacking a Four Rivers Project tag):
https://www.birdskoreablog.org/?p=5496
Thanks.