547 Breakwaters and 1076 Drainage Sluices Protecting Islands
Serious Protection and Management of Sinan-gun Territory Equivalent to 1.1 Times Seoul's Area
Even Nationally Managed Breakwaters Delegated by Central Government Maintained Solely
[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] Sinan County, which has 1,004 islands, maintains its current form based on the dikes connecting the islands.
The role of the dikes is to protect island residents from disasters and serve as a stronghold that safeguards the living grounds of the island residents, including farmland mostly made up of reclaimed land, salt fields, and fish farms.
In this way, the role of the dikes is crucial in protecting the land from waves during natural disasters such as typhoons or heavy rains, and the drainage sluices that discharge water into the sea during heavy rains also play an important role in protecting the ‘islands’ from flooding damage.
Sinan County possesses the ‘largest number and longest length of dikes in the country.’ Out of 1,673 dikes nationwide, Sinan manages 547, which accounts for one-third, and even the installed sluices number 1,076, representing 45% of the 2,342 sluices nationwide.
Shinan County manages the largest number of 547 embankments in the country. (Photo by Shinan County)
Since before 1960, the dikes have been continuously constructed, and Sinan County has been constantly repairing and maintaining them with 50% national subsidy. However, due to the lowest financial independence nationwide, Sinan County has maintained and repaired 547 dikes and 1,673 sluices with county funds without separate national support. Even the nationally managed dikes delegated by the central government are maintained purely with county funds.
As a result, agricultural water (dike) officials in Sinan County find it difficult to perform normal duties due to the flood of maintenance requests for dikes and drainage sluices. The reclaimed land area, which is 1.1 times the size of Seoul, is pushed down the priority list due to budget shortages, leaving the dike and drainage sluice repair sites always exposed to disasters.
To fundamentally solve the aging of drainage sluices and the sea level rise caused by global warming, the national subsidy rate for the repair projects in Sinan, which manages 35% of the dikes and 45% of the drainage sluices nationwide, must be increased to ensure safe maintenance.
In particular, national subsidies are urgently needed for the maintenance and management of both nationally and locally managed dikes.
In this regard, a Sinan County official said, “We planned to analyze past, present, and future water level changes and calculate the freeboard for each dike by conducting a basic survey of all dikes and performing numerical model experiments with that data, but currently, maintenance costs are insufficient,” expressing, “It is very difficult to secure the budget for the numerical model experiment service.”
Sinan County is making new attempts for the efficient management of 547 dikes and 1,076 drainage sluices, and having the largest number and longest dikes in the country, it was officially certified by the Korea Records Institute as the highest record last September. Next year, it will challenge the Guinness World Records.
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