The Status of Ground‐Water Development in the Republic of Koreaab

Abstract

AbstractThe Republic of Korea shares the world‐wide problems of water supply variability in time and space ‐ they have too little water at some time and in some places, and too much water in others. Drouth is a recurring threat; floods occur nearly every summer. The floods of July 1965 are reported to have been the most costly in history. The population is increasing at a rapid rate and material things are in short supply. However, the people of Korea are making a tremendous effort to modernize facilities, construct an industrial base, improve agricultural practices, control the rivers and develop water supplies, and in general, improve the standard of living. With a per capita income of about $80 per year, Korea has a long way to go in its climb up the economic ladder, but the people are able, intelligent, energetic and avid for learning and progress. They enjoy one of the highest literacy rates in the Far East, and have a trained core of professionals in most fields, except they lack a trained cadre of specialists in ground‐water studies and have very few experienced water well drillers. During the Japanese occupation of Korea systematic ground‐water studies were begun, and ground‐water development followed soon afterwards. But the limited staff of Japanese geologists employed in the effort returned to Japan at the end of World War II in 1945. In the uncertainty of the next 8 years, which included the Korean War, it was impossible to develop trained manpower and an organization.Presently, there is widespread interest on the part of the Korean Government to develop ground water wherever it may be for such uses as irrigation, industrial supply and development, municipalities, villages, and sanitary rural supply. As a result of this interest the author spent four months in Korea in the fall of 1964 and the spring of 1965 at the request of the Agency for International Development, U. S. Department of State, to review the situation and report on the feasibility of a United States supported effort to help the Korean Government to make systematic studies that would lead to ground‐water development, and to any necessary improvement of their methods of hydrologic data acquisition and utilization.