Lee Jae-myung Visits Yangpyeong Yongmuncheon for Clean Valley Restoration: "Grateful to Residents... Preparing Support Measures"

[Asia Economy (Yangpyeong) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] On the 25th, Lee Jae-myung, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, visited Yongmuncheon and Jungwoncheon in Yangpyeong County, which were able to minimize flood damage through the 'Clean Valley Restoration Project,' along with Jeong Dong-gyun, Yangpyeong County Governor, and related officials to inspect the site and encourage those involved.

Yangpyeong Yongmuncheon suffered property damage worth 92 million KRW during the 49-day monsoon in 2013. However, despite record-breaking heavy rainfall this year, the damage was reduced to 22 million KRW, a 77% decrease.

This flood damage reduction result was due to the 'Clean River Valley Maintenance Project' promoted by Governor Lee Jae-myung since last year.

During heavy rainfall, illegal facilities such as platforms and containers obstruct water flow, raising water levels and easily causing river flooding even under rainfall below the flood design frequency. Additionally, drifting facilities get caught on bridges, causing overflow phenomena, leading to secondary flooding damage to nearby houses and farmland. Notably, in the summer of 2017, two people lost their lives after being swept away by the swollen rapid currents while trying to remove platforms placed in the valley.

The province states that by preemptively removing such illegal facilities, despite more rainfall this year compared to previous years, damage was reduced to a quarter.

In fact, according to the province, an analysis of damage scale targeting Pocheon Yeongpyeongcheon, Gapyeong Gapyeongcheon, Namyangju Guuncheon, Yangpyeong Yongmuncheon, and Gwangju Byeoncheon?where damage was severe in 2013?showed that the number of damage cases this year was 2, about a 75% decrease from 8 cases in 2013. The damage amount also decreased by 94%, from 636 million KRW to 37 million KRW.

This was also proven through flood simulation experiments conducted on Yongmuncheon. Assuming an unmaintained situation, predictions of water level and flow velocity showed that most areas with illegal facilities were flooded, and these facilities were carried downstream by flow velocities exceeding 3.0 m/s (enough to move large natural stones), likely causing secondary damage.

The province plans to continue maintenance and management to prevent recurrence of illegal activities in river valleys, and to implement various projects to improve the local economy and residents' quality of life, such as building living SOC, and revitalizing communities.

So far, the province has detected 11,690 illegal facilities at 1,596 locations across 204 rivers in 25 cities and counties within the province, and has removed 11,498 of them.

Governor Lee said on his social media (SNS) that "I feel great fulfillment knowing that many residents enjoyed the cleaner nature during the first vacation period since starting the clean valley maintenance over the past year," and promised, "I will continue to do my utmost until the end to prevent recurrence of illegal activities."

He also added, "I deeply thank the residents and merchants who cooperated," and said, "Rather than just expressing gratitude, we will devise and promote support measures such as installing convenience facilities, economic communities, and developing tourism products as compensation for local residents and merchants."