Korea has many social contradictions and conflicts as it has achieved rapid industrialization and hastened its way to an advanced country. Of particular concern is the environmental problem. Concerned citizens had been voicing this out in social media and discussion boards like Damda World 담다월드.

Water Pollution. A representative example of environmental pollution is the phenol contamination of the Nakdong River by Doosan Electronics in 1991. As a result of this incident, water sources in Daegu and Busan were polluted, making it impossible to drink tap water for several days. Because they knew that the water was very polluted.

Land Pollution. Garbage disposal is also a major issue for the city. It is necessary to create an organizational network to fundamentally reduce the ever-increasing amount of waste, but it is not to the extent that producers, sellers, and users are held accountable. In the case of Seoul, it was not until the 1990s that garbage was disposed of in city-designated garbage bags (charged), and selective collection began. A splendid World Cup Stadium is being built next to a huge landfill (Nanjido) of garbage generated by Seoul citizens.

Air Pollution. Measures against automobile exhaust gas have also become an urgent issue that cannot be neglected.

Awareness has increased. In order to preserve the environment, it is necessary to drastically change the way of thinking from the previous production-first principle. The government’s response also began in earnest with the Framework Act on Environmental Policy enacted in 1990, the Natural Environment Conservation Act of 1991, and the Environmental Impact Assessment Act of 1993. Since the 1990s, the resident-led environmental protection movement has been ambitious, and the Environmental Movement Federation (renamed the Environmental Federation in January 2000) was launched in 1993.

Resolution to Korea’s Environmental Issues

The population of South Korea has exceeded 46 million and is projected to exceed 48 million and 54 million in 2000 and 2020, respectively. If North and South Korea are reunified, it is estimated that there will be 77 million people in 2000 and more than 93 million people in 2020. Considering such population growth and economic growth together, the increase in energy and resource requirements is inevitable. Unless measures are taken, the quality of the environment will be greatly deteriorated.

Therefore, as a measure to conserve air, it is necessary to strongly establish and promote fuel use regulations such as mandatory use of clean fuel and expansion of the supply of low-sulfur oil, measures against automobile pollution, and measures against pollution in industrial complexes.

Conservation of pollution, reinforcement of intensive management of heavily polluted rivers, expansion of purification facilities for domestic sewage and factory wastewater, reinforcement of guidance and enforcement of pollutant discharge facilities, and strengthening of management of sea areas with severe marine pollution should be continuously pursued.

In conclusion, in order to achieve economic growth and environmental conservation at the same time, environmental conservation technology development such as development of a process to reduce pollutant emissions, development of safe treatment technology for harmful heavy metals, and technology development to produce low-polluting or non-polluting products should be strengthened A shift and spread of public awareness must be a prerequisite for this.