[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province is taking steps to improve the water quality of local rivers using industrial wastewater discharge.
According to the province on the 4th, the day before, Chungnam Governor Yang Seung-jo signed a "Water Quality Improvement and Water Reuse Business Agreement" with Asan Mayor Oh Se-hyun and Samsung Display CEO Choi Joo-sun.
Under the agreement, Samsung Display will first create artificial plant islands to improve the water quality of Garakbawi detention pond, which collects wastewater discharge within the business site.
The artificial plant islands will cover 14,000㎡ (40% of the total 35,000㎡ area of the detention pond), and Samsung Display will invest 3 billion KRW for the project.
Asan City will install a reuse facility with a capacity of 20,000 tons per day and lay a 4.5 km pipeline to send the water from this detention pond to Yongpyeongcheon, an upstream river of Gokgyocheon.
Once the reuse facility and pipeline are completed, the water from Garakbawi detention pond, discharged by Samsung Display, will flow into Gokgyocheon via Yongpyeongcheon and Maegokcheon. The volume of reused discharge water will be the largest in the province and the second largest nationwide, following Daegu.
The province expects this to have effects such as water quality improvement through natural purification of discharge water and restoration of aquatic ecosystem health by securing water quality and quantity in upstream rivers.
The province will also promote an integrated and concentrated pollution tributary improvement project for water quality improvement of Gokgyocheon and Dogocheon in cooperation with Asan City.
The main projects include ▲ expansion of Asan New Town public sewage treatment facility ▲ expansion of Asan public sewage treatment facility ▲ installation of non-point pollution source reduction facilities in Gokgyocheon, with a total project cost of 137.2 billion KRW.
Chungnam Governor Yang Seung-jo said, "The Sapgyocheon watershed has continuously deteriorated in water quality due to industrialization and urbanization. The province has conducted focused and integrated watershed management to improve the water quality of Sapgyoho, the endpoint of Sapgyocheon, but the reality is that it is still insufficient."
He added, "Major tributaries flowing into Sapgyoho, such as Gokgyocheon and Dogocheon, are receiving untreated sewage and non-point pollution sources from agricultural land, so improvement is necessary. It is significant that Samsung Display signed an agreement to improve pollution points in the watersheds of these two rivers, including Gokgyocheon."
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