Lee says envisioned river project will produce 'new values'

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details of event, parties' reactions at bottom)
SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak said Sunday that an envisaged
restoration project of the country's four major rivers will benefit the country
by creating "more-than-expected" value for the nation, apparently in an effort to
assuage skepticism over the controversial project.
The controversial project calls for the government to spend 22.2 trillion won
(US$19 billion) by 2012 to restore the country's major Han, Nakdong, Geum and
Yeongsan rivers in order to prevent floods and cope with water shortages.
"As we experienced from the restoration of the Cheonggye stream, the project to
restore the four major rivers will produce new values that are larger than what
we could expect," Lee said during a ceremony in the southwestern city of Gwangju
to mark the start of the restoration of the Yeongsan River.
While as mayor of Seoul in 2005, Lee restored the 5.8km Cheonggye stream that
runs across the nation's capital, transforming it into a major tourist
attraction.
"If the project proves to be a success, the world will remember South Korea as
the leader of green growth," the president said, underscoring that the project
should not be dealt with as a subject of political strife.
The four-river restoration project is a replacement for the president's initial
plan to build a network of cross-country waterways for a "grand canal," which was
scrapped due to immense criticism from environmentalists and opposition parties.
Critics charge the river restoration project is a run-up to Lee's canal project,
one of his main campaign pledges in the 2007 presidential election.
While supporters say the restoration project will help prevent floods, which cost
the nation an average of 2.7 trillion won per year in damages and 4.3 trillion
won in repairs, opponents claim it is not economically viable and will wreak
havoc on the environment.
"We should gather our strength for the successful propulsion" of the project,
said Lee, further stressing that the restoration project is fundamentally aimed
at restoring the ecosystem of the country's rivers.
Some 2,500 officials, including construction, environmental ministers and local
government heads of regions to be affected by the project, attended the event
ground-breaking ceremony.
The main opposition Democratic Party slammed the event, describing it as the
signal for a "national disaster."
"The four-river project will be the main cause of South Korea's fiscal breakdown
and the beginning of the collapse of the Lee Myung-bak administration," Woo
Sang-ho, the party's spokesman, said in a statement.
The ruling Grand National Party (GNP) criticized the opposition's ongoing
rejection of a related budget review for the project, claiming that a large
number of regional governments affiliated with the Democratic Party are in fact
in favor of the plan.
"DP lawmakers from regions that will benefit from the project must clarify their
positions on the project," said Cho Yoon-sun, GNP spokeswoman, at a press
conference.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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