RESTORATION EFFORTS CONTINUE IN FLOOD-HIT AREAS

[Anchor Lead]

Restoration efforts are in full swing in areas that bore the brunt of this year's monsoon floods. One of them is the Chungcheong region, where rice paddies, fields and orchards were inundated and crops were swept away just months before the harvest season.

[Pkg]

​This ginseng field was inundated when water from Yongdam Dam was discharged on August 8. Some 30 local residents and public officials work to remove drenched shades and dig out damaged crops. They work non-stop in the scorching heat, but there is no end in sight.

[Soundbite] LEE HO-YOUNG(YEONGDONG RESIDENT) : "They are completely useless now. They are all rotten. I have no other choice but to plow my field."

A peach orchard where harvest was to begin soon... After nearly two months of monsoon rains, thousands of peaches are scattered on the ground, when they should have reached consumers. In this orchard alone, about 80 percent of the fruits have fallen from the branches.

[Soundbite] KIM JI-OK(EUMSEONG RESIDENT) : "The fallen ones need to be thrown away. It breaks my heart as I spent a long time, giving my everything to grow them."

Rice paddies in this village in Chungju became submerged in water after more than 70mm of precipitation on August 2. More than one-fourth of them are now covered in piles of mud. Farmers grow anxious as restoration efforts are slow and their crops could be damaged further by pests due to the prolonged monsoon season.

[Soundbite] YOON SANG-IN(CHUNGJU RESIDENT) : "We're going to save whatever we can. But using it cannot be used as a rice paddy. It takes 2-3 years to create the right soil conditions for cultivating rice."

Thousands of hectares of farmland in Chungcheongbuk-do Province sustained damage surpassing 20 billion won due to heavy rain and dam discharge. It will take a long time for farmers to have their lives return to normal.