Photo courtesy of Yonhap News
Hapcheon Dam, a multi-purpose dam for the Nakdong River water system, has entered the drought ‘interest’ stage.
The Ministry of Environment announced that Andong Dam, Imha Dam, and Yeongcheon Dam have been upgraded from the drought ‘attention’ stage to the ‘caution’ stage, and the Hapcheon Dam has entered the drought ‘interested’ stage.
Accordingly, the number of dams managed by the Ministry of Environment at the drought level has increased to 13, and among them, the number of dams managed under the drought ‘caution’ level has increased from 4 to 7.
The Ministry of Environment compared the average rainfall this year in the multi-purpose dam basin with the previous year. The Han River system was similar to the previous year, but it was found that the Nakdong River system, the Geum River system, and the Seomjin river system were less than 60% of the previous year.
The Ministry of Environment plans to manage dam water through measures such as flexibly reducing river maintenance water for Hapcheon Dam, Andong Dam, Imha Dam, and Yeongcheon Dam, where drought conditions have worsened, and reducing agricultural water within the actual usage capacity.
The Ministry of Environment predicted that it would be difficult to resolve the drought at the Nakdong River dam with only the rainfall at the level predicted so far, and plans to focus on the recovery of the low water rate of the dam for the time being.