[August Theme Report] Water inequality in South Korea

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[August Theme Report] Water inequality in South Korea
by Wooyeong Kim \| 17-08-2023 20:01 0
Limited resources and increasing demand from people make many dilemmas in society. A representative example is water scarcity, mostly caused by climate change. Not fewer countries over the world are introducing new policies to delay the situation of water scarcity; One country accepts the plan for water sharing between the provinces to alleviate the harm from drought. According to WWF(World Wildlife Fund), it is anticipated that ⅔ of people may face water scarcity, and this would be attributed to the upper class’s wrong consumption habits as one of the causes. Many pieces of research dealing with the relevance have shown the correlation that the elite and middle-upper class(about 10 % of the population) consume over half of the total water consumption. Moreover, the spread of using AI in many fields can also cause water scarcity. The abundant data demands the widespread installation of data centers, and to cool down those centers, huge amounts of fresh water are needed.— On average, 1~5 million gallons a day are expected. Most companies overlook the side effect of running AI systems since they are only focusing on technical concerns. Especially, if companies install the data center in water-scarce areas, the seriousness of the water problem in that area would increase, obviously. That means the responsibility and struggles would spontaneously head to the innocent villagers. From this process, the inequality of water between particular areas arises. People living in the countryside and working in agriculture may consider water the most significant factor for living. However, climate change hinders their work, appearing as severe drought. Last winter, in the southern area of Korea, the wide reservoir dried out, and even the water for living lacks as well as irrigation water. This event should be urgently considered because of the gap between the regions: the southern area is the only region whereas the other regions including Seoul didn’t struggle with this problem of water. The damage difference mostly manifested in the countryside, even if the damage is not about agriculture. Korea’s waterworks supply rate is 97.5%. Then, how about the extra people of 2.5%? Some villages of Gangwon-do, a province and the least densely populated subdivision of Korea, struggle with the limited water supply. They should keep the water in the early morning because they sometimes cannot access the water. This happens because the source reservoir for residential water had been contaminated and drought in summer had deteriorated the situation. Even though, the fundamental root of this problem is lack of the waterworks in the less populated areas. Therefore, the efforts of the government and the communities to revitalize the safe and clean water supply are needed. <references> http://www.fortunekorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=27464 https://www.newsquest.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=208643 https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/25126929#home https://www.pressian.com/pages/articles/2022062117264775502

Youth Wooyeong Kim

3 Comments

Yewon Mentor

Yewon Mentor says :
Hello Wooyeong! This is your mentor Yewon.
You have written a wonderful report about water inequality in Korea.
I could deeply agree with your report that there are still some people who are having difficulties getting sufficient water for their lives. I hope we can combat this problem well.
Thank you for your meaningful report. Great job!
Posted 31-08-2023 10:36

James Mentor says :
Hello Wooyeong! This is your mentor James.

As you said, the lack of resources seems like a really serious problem. Also, it was a sharp point that AI and data centers, which are booming these days, cause water shortages. I agree that meaningful policies need to be made by the government to solve these problem. Let's make an effort to protect the environment together!

Thank you for your fantastic work! Let's keep it up with your next report as well.
Posted 25-08-2023 10:14

Yashaswi Hegde