ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS

[Anchor Lead]

Next up we bring you local news from Changwon located in Gyeongsamnamdo Province. Environmental assessments are a must for all construction projects. However, concerns for environmental degradation mount as environmental evaluations are not being conducted in an accurate manner.

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This is Daebong Marsh, a Grade 1 wetland in Changnyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do Province. An embankment construction is underway here. The marsh is also home to 15 species of endangered plants and animals such as otters. Three researchers spent only about 3 hours to complete an environmental assessment of 160,000 square meters of wetland, that's the size of 22 football fields. A southern coastal area about 100 meters away from a prospective marine park. Court-protected species of convex crabs and clithons inhabit the area, but the assessment report did not even mention them. Inadequate environmental assessments inevitably lead to ecological destruction. Back in 2017, critically endangered Korean loaches died in droves during the restoration of the flood-damaged Yangsancheon River area in Gyeongsangnam-do Province. The fish was not listed in the assessment report.

[Soundbite] LEE HEON-SU(K. FED. FOR ENV. MOVEMENT) : "They could have seen it if they had come. The fish wasn't included in the report."

The Ministry of Environment's Nakdong River On-site Response team in charge of the river and surrounding areas had not even reviewed such a deficient environmental report. On average, fewer than four contractors nationwide have been hit with administrative measures per year for writing up inadequate or false environmental assessment reports.