In July of this year, excessive rainfall in Paju (873mm), Buyeo in Chungcheongnam-do (809mm), and Iksan in Jeollabuk-do (704mm) resulted in monthly precipitation exceeding half of the annual total, leading to the designation of 15 cities and counties as special disaster areas. Recent flooding over the past three years has caused damage exceeding 1.6 trillion KRW and resulted in 85 fatalities. Extreme weather has also led to drought impact, with the longest drought of 227 days in the southern region in 2022 causing shortages in drinking water and threatening the operation of factories in national industrial complexes. The Ministry of Environment’s response to these issues is the construction of climate response dams.

  On July 30th, during a briefing at the Government Seoul Building on candidate sites for climate response dams, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment stated, “Climate response dams will have the capacity to handle rainfall of 80-220mm in a single event. They will be equipped with flood defense capabilities to accommodate such rainfall.” The Ministry also highlighted, “We plan to secure an annual water supply capacity of 250 million tons, which can support 2.2 million citizens, to actively address extreme droughts and new water demands for national strategic projects.” Also, in an interview with Pressian, the Minister of Environment Kim Wan-sub said, “Even if we start now, dam construction will take about ten years. Considering the recent climate crisis, we cannot afford any further delays.” He added, “We will build dams that not only address the climate crisis but also contribute to improving the lives of local residents and stimulating the regional economy.” Meanwhile, the a former president Moon Jae-in government unified water-related tasks such as water quantity, water quality, and disaster management, which the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport used to manage eco-friendly rivers, and the current government’s Ministry of Environment intends to push for the construction of dams in the name of water management.

  On July 30, when the Ministry of Environment announced the candidate sites for climate-response dams, the Green Foundation issued a press release, saying, “This announcement is a declaration to justify the Four Rivers Project and return to water management policies centered on it, in the name of responding to and adapting to the climate crisis. To begin with, naming 14 dams as climate-response dams has completely left out important scientific evidence. Although the ministry claims that the candidates have been selected based on scientific data, no evaluation criteria or references are provided. In addition, the descriptions for the major dam candidates contain only basic forecasting figures, such as expected water supply based on reservoir capacity. There is a lack of convincing explanation for the correlation between the areaʼs required quantity, whether there is a shortage, and the areas with chronic drought. Above all, there is no scientific explanation for how these multipurpose dams will respond to the flooding.” They also criticized, “The logic that dams prevent floods and droughts is outdated. In fact, the Four Rivers Survey and Evaluation Committee, initiated under the 18th president Park Guen-Hye administration, clearly proved that these dams did not help with drought and flooding.”

  On the same day, the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements also pointed out in a press release, “When we look at the contents of the announced government plan, it only appears to be a climate-illiterate idea that merely uses the climate crisis as a hostage to revive the construction industry, failing to break away from inertial constructionism. Nowhere in the Ministry of Environment’s announcement is there any mention of concerns about environmental destruction or any alternatives, and the claims of flood defense, water supply, and fundamental response to the climate crisis all appear to be poorly substantiated and lacking in effectiveness.” They further criticized, “The flood defense capability, which the Ministry of Environment cited first as an effect of constructing new dams, is an incorrect diagnosis of the causes of flood damage. The Ministry emphasized the necessity of building new dams, implying that the recent nationwide flood damage was as if they had occurred because dams were not constructed. However, the majority of recent flood damage cases were caused by poor management of levees, excessive use of river spaces, and inadequate drainage systems. Moreover, considering the total storage capacity of the new dams, it is grossly insufficient for flood defense. As the Ministry itself acknowledges, flood defense dams designed to hold several hundred million tons of water, or to accommodate about 200mm of rainfall per day, would be of little significance in the era of the climate crisis. In a situation where unpredictable heavy rainfall occurs frequently, if more than 300mm of rain falls, the dams planned by the Ministry could instead become another disaster by failing to handle the storage capacity.”

  There is also strong backlash from the local communities designated as potential sites for climate response dams. Civic groups in the Danyang area formed the National Emergency Committee Against Dam Construction on Aug. 12 and have been organizing protest rallies and street petition campaigns against the Danyangcheon Dam construction plan. A resident who participated in the street petition campaign said in an interview with Chungcheong Maeil, “Building another water supply dam in Danyang, which has already suffered from population outflow after the construction of the Chungju Dam and endured various restrictions for over 40 years for the sake of the metropolitan area, is ignoring and neglecting the pain of the local community.”

  According to a report by Good Morning Chungcheong, the Cheongyang County Council in Chungnam Province stated, “Although the dam construction is being justified under the pretext of responding to the climate crisis and securing future water resources, it is an irresponsible project that will bring irreversible environmental, social, and economic disasters to the county residents.” They added, “The environmental and social damage that residents suffered from past dam constructions like the Yongdam Dam, Yeongwol Dam, and Hantan River Dam are painful lessons. We will never tolerate dam construction to protect the survival and rights of our residents.” 

  Both Europe and the U.S. began removing dams long ago for environmental preservation reasons. The number of outdated dams without economic value that are not in use has increased, and dams left without a purpose have a detrimental impact on river ecosystems, leading to the decision to start removing them to aid in ecological recovery.

  The U.S. was once known as a country with over 90,000 dams. However, starting in the mid-1970s, the removal of unused dams increased sharply, and since 1912, a total of 1,605 dams have been demolished. The largest dams ever removed in U.S. history are the Elwha Dam and the Glines Canyon Dam. These two dams were dismantled in 2011 and 2014, respectively, due to concerns over the restoration of fish resources, including salmon in the Elwha River, and safety issues. In fact, in 1991, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) officially announced that dam removal was the only way to achieve full ecological restoration of the Elwha River.

  In an article contributed to OhmyNews, Lim Sung-hee, the Green Project Team leader of Green Korea United, stated, “The U.S. has over 90,000 dams taller than two meters, including the large Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, which are 33 meters and 64 meters high, respectively, that have been removed. While the U.S. was once a country represented by dams, it is now even said to represent the movement of dam removal. After the removal of the two dams, the river showed a rapid capacity for restoration, and the number of returning salmon reportedly increased remarkably. In contrast, our country’s administration fails to recognize that dams are not structures that need to be built but rather old relics that should be removed, as it continues to look backward.”

  In Europe, a total of 487 dams of various sizes were removed in 2023 alone. According to the annual report from Dam Removal Europe (DRE), an organization dedicated to the dam removal movement in Europe, 487 barriers, including dams that impeded the flow of rivers, were dismantled last year, reconnecting approximately 4,300 kilometers of rivers. This helped improve river flow and allowed fish to reach their breeding grounds in the upper and middle parts of the rivers.

  The Ministry of Environment plans to build 14 climate response dams to address the climate crisis caused by environmental destruction. However, the Ministry seems to overlook the root causes of these problems while being at the forefront of environmental destruction.