Many people from countries with improved social infrastructure would think access to clean drinking water is a basic human right. South Koreans usually take clean water for granted as the access to clean water in South Korea is annually estimated above 97%. According to World Bank Data, 98.21% of Korean could use improved drinking water in 2019.
Korea has its own strong capability to build dams and operate hydropower plants. Korea Water Resources Corp (hereafter ‘K-water’), an publicly-owned institution that manages water resources in South Korea, conducted comprehensive water resources development projects starting with basin investigations in the 1960s after the Korean War. The projects included large-scale dams and water control projects in major rivers in the 1970s and 80s. K-water has been trying to export its accumulated know-hows to other countries and now became the remarkable one as a sustainable water platform provider. Beginning with a survey of the Fenhe River in Shanxi,China in 1994, the Korean corporation has completed or is in the process of implementing 112 overseas projects in 35 different countries including Pakistan, Philippines, Uzbekistan and so on. The project includes development & operation of water supply infrastructure and support for water quality management. In the beginning of this year, the government of Indonesia has awarded the K-water consortium an order to develop a tap water supply system from Karian Dam to Jakarta province.
K-water stably delivers clean water to people by using its innovative water management technologies. It digitized its management system using artificial intelligence (AI) and big data. It manages 56 water resource facilities and manages 12.5 billion cubic meters of water supply (60% of the national total) and 95% of flood control by upgrading its facility management program with digital twin technology. Thanks to integrated solutions that provide real-time information, it can manage water power plants effectively, prevent water disasters and respond to water circulation in drainage basins and water quality abnormalities, which enables the cleanest tap water for everyone.
The K-Water Employees monitor the facilities and climate in real time. In this room they can manage the operations of the dam, reservoir, and metropolitan/industrial water system for the entire country. The emergency response system is maintained and kept at all times in case of disasters such as floods, droughts, and algae.
As the global water industry is changing rapidly beyond achieving water security, adapting to increased population pressure and coping with climate change, technology became of paramount importance in building a sustainable and resilient water future by focusing on decarbonization and circular economic principles. With that said, K-water also developed leading-edge knowledge to produce clean energy made from water and construct smart water circulation cities. K-water has been making great efforts to generate renewable energy to lead the green transformation and achieve Net-Zero goal and RE100━Net-Zero refers to a goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and to achieve carbon neutrality, and RE100 refers to initiative to replace 100% of the power supply with green energy━ Floating solar power and water thermal energy are the ones it is focusing on, which has less location restrictions than pre-existing renewable energy.
K-water can develop a smart water city by applying cutting-edge water circulation technology. A smart water city, named Eco Delta Smart City in Busan (hereafter ‘Busan EDC), is under construction as a national pilot project. It is supposed to utilize its own domain-specific expertise, including urban flood disaster management system, smart water treatment plant, and high-precision radars, to build Busan EDC. Busan EDC is close to a futuristic city, as we dreamed of for a long time, because it is equipped with many smart city technologies in cooperation with other tech-savvy companies and organizations. These advanced techniques are sufficient to be the focus of the global attention.
While South Korea’s water industry has grown up as the world’s 12th largest water market with $13 billion (according to the ‘Global Water Intelligence’), only a few private companies are competing in the foreign market, calling for the need to bolster the industry’s overall competitiveness. K-water will function as a connector — through promising small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), startups, venture capital, vendor, academic, and global industry communities — to nurture the national water industry. It provides support from the process of starting a business to technical demonstrations, and global expansions to startups. It aims to enhance global competitiveness by utilizing global networks to promote excellent technology overseas and to support the establishment of cooperative relationships.
As K-water attempts to strengthen international cooperation, its reputation is expected to be built on its experience working on some of the world’s largest and most technically challenging projects. K-water established an Asian platform named The Asia Water Council (AWC) to address Asian water issues as a global agenda. Now K-water would become a leading player in the global water market by diversifying its business structure into global scale and by operating environmental improvement corporations with other countries.
Kayla Hong
Asia Journal
(Los Angeles Times Advertising Supplement)
