Declaration of abandonment of water quality… Civic groups call for rejection of Saemangeum basic plan changes

(Jeonju = Yonhap News) Reporter Na Bo-bae = On the 28th, when the Saemangeum Committee meeting was held, the Saemangeum Seawater Distribution Movement Headquarters urged, "Reject the Saemangeum Master Plan (MP) change plan that threatens the future of the Saemangeum ecosystem."

The organization held a press conference in front of the Saemangeum 33 Center on this day and said, "We promised a fundamental change in the Saemangeum project, but the essence of the project, which focuses on dredging and reclamation, has not changed," and ordered, "We must open a forum for public-private consultation to preserve the ecological environment and achieve carbon neutrality."

At the same time, he emphasized, "The residents' briefing session held to establish the Saemangeum basic plan change was marred by failure and failure, and the public hearing in September also ended for over three hours without a proper answer or promise of follow-up action," and added, "We can never accept the one-sided decision that was pushed forward while ignoring the demand to form a public-private consultative body in which fishermen, residents, and civic groups participate."

He also pointed out, "In the Saemangeum basic plan change plan, the area subject to reclamation was reduced by 29.5% from 240.5㎢ to 169.6㎢, but the amount of dredging was reduced by only 12.7% from 710 million ㎥ to 6200 million ㎥," and "Continuing to dig up a huge amount of soil is the same as declaring that you will give up on water quality."

The Saemangeum Seawater Distribution Movement Headquarters also criticized the financial resource calculation method contained in the Saemangeum basic plan and the energy plan without a transmission network.

The group claimed, "The government reduced land development costs by 3.43 trillion won to reduce the landfill area, but this is a deception that does not reflect rising prices and industrial complex expansion costs," and added, "Considering the inflation rate, at least 25 trillion won more is needed, excluding the 9.9 trillion won already invested."

In addition, he added, “The plan to build a transmission and distribution network is completely omitted from the basic plan, saying it ‘follows KEPCO’s own plan.’” He added, “The Saemangeum Committee should not rely on the speed of dredging and reclamation, but should form a public-private consultative body and draw up a new plan that takes the ecosystem into consideration.”