To resolve "water supply leakage," identified as one of the main causes of sinkhole accidents, the government will greatly expand next year's project to repair and upgrade aging water supply networks. In particular, metropolitan cities and large cities (with populations of 500,000 or more), which the central government had not financially supported, were included as beneficiaries of aging water supply maintenance. Until now, maintenance of aging water supplies in metropolitan local governments had been left to the municipalities, but projects did not proceed properly due to lack of funding.
According to interviews compiled on the 19th with the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, among other related ministries, the government will newly launch a project next year to repair a total of 2,142 km of aging water supplies. That is a 22.2% increase from this year's new repair volume of 1,752 km.
According to the Ministry of Environment, a total of 240,000 km of water supply networks are laid across local governments nationwide. Of these, 90,000 km of pipelines installed 21 years ago or earlier are aging, accounting for 38% of the total. As a result of a four-year nationwide precision inspection of water supply pipelines from 2019 to 2022, the ministry found that 17,000 km require repairs due to deterioration.
Of the 17,000 km requiring repairs, about 3,000 km have been fixed. Currently, repair work is underway on more than 4,000 km. About 10,000 km that have not yet begun repairs remain. Next year's new project volume amounts to 20% of the pipelines that need repairs.
The Ministry of Environment, which had supported water supply maintenance budgets only for basic local governments at the city and county level, will begin subsidizing metropolitan cities and large cities next year. Gwangju and Pyeongtaek were selected as the metropolitan and large cities to receive support next year. The central government will provide 5.16 billion won to Gwangju and 1.4 billion won to Pyeongtaek.
A Ministry of Environment official said, "Until now, we supported water supply maintenance funds only for cities and counties with limited fiscal capacity, but there have been continued requests that national funding is needed in metropolitan and large cities as well to actively respond to ground subsidence issues," adding, "Taking into account these local difficulties, we included metropolitan cities and others as beneficiaries when drafting next year's budget bill."
The official added, "By expanding support for water supply maintenance projects, we expect to reduce leakage in local water supplies, strengthen drought response in vulnerable areas, and prevent ground subsidence (sinkholes)."
According to the Ministry of Environment, among 48 local governments that completed construction by the end of 2024, the water revenue ratio improved from 55.8% to 89.3%. The volume of tap water saved from leakage reached 69.3 million cubic meters, equivalent to the amount 620,000 people could use for one year. The prevention effect on ground subsidence caused by water supply leakage was also reported to be significant.