Gyeongnam Province Secures 115.7 Billion KRW in National Funds for Next Year, Accelerates Disaster Prevention Projects

Deployed in 5 Sectors, 134 Districts

Gyeongnam Provincial Government. / Photo by Se-ryeong Lee ryeong@

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] Gyeongsangnam-do has secured 115.7 billion KRW in national funds for 134 districts across five disaster prevention project sectors for next year.

Disaster prevention projects are initiatives aimed at protecting residents' lives and preventing property damage in advance from natural disasters.

This includes maintenance of facilities at risk of collapse due to aging, such as steep slopes and reservoirs, and areas vulnerable to tsunami flooding like the Changwon Seohang district, which showed flood prevention effects during Typhoon Hinnamnor (No. 11) this year.

According to the province on the 4th, the five disaster prevention project sectors are flood and wind disaster living zone maintenance, disaster risk improvement districts, disaster risk reservoirs, steep slope collapse risk areas, and rainwater retention facility sectors.

By sector, the breakdown is as follows: ▲ Comprehensive maintenance of flood and wind disaster living zones - 15 districts, 27.4 billion KRW ▲ Maintenance of disaster risk improvement districts - 58 districts, 53.3 billion KRW ▲ Maintenance of disaster risk reservoirs - 25 districts, 5.7 billion KRW ▲ Maintenance of steep slope collapse risk areas - 36 districts, 16.3 billion KRW ▲ Installation of rainwater retention facilities - 4 districts, 13 billion KRW.

The province stated that this is nearly a 20% increase compared to this year, and including national and local funds, a total project cost of 231.4 billion KRW will be invested in 134 districts.

Among them, the comprehensive flood and wind disaster living zone maintenance project is promoted to address vulnerabilities such as flooding and collapse caused by flood and wind disasters at the village level all at once, to compensate for the shortcomings of existing disaster prevention projects.

This is jointly promoted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety for natural disaster risk improvement districts maintenance, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport for local river maintenance, and the Ministry of Environment for sewer maintenance.

This year, Gyeongsangnam-do is conducting disaster prevention projects with a total project cost of 193.4 billion KRW across 124 districts, including ▲ 11 districts for comprehensive flood and wind disaster living zone maintenance ▲ 54 districts for disaster risk improvement districts maintenance ▲ 29 districts for steep slope collapse risk areas maintenance ▲ 26 districts for disaster risk reservoirs maintenance ▲ 4 districts for rainwater retention facility installation.

Next year, four new sites?Changwon Sinchon district, Sacheon Guam district, Namhae Changseon district, and Hadong Jannori district?will be newly designated, and maintenance projects will be promoted together with 11 existing sites.

A provincial official said, “As the total number of project sites has increased to 134, we will conduct frequent inspections to prevent delays in administrative procedures such as detailed design, preliminary design review, farmland conversion permits, and compensation work,” adding, “We will also devote all efforts to managing execution rates for ongoing and completed districts.”

Yoon Seonghye, head of the Provincial Safety Headquarters, said, “Disaster prevention projects save 3.5 times more budget compared to recovery after disaster occurrence,” and added, “We will protect residents' lives and property by preventing disaster risk factors in advance and will continuously expand and promote these projects.”