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Sluggish sand sales burden local townships

Municipalities that took on sand dredged from the Han River being stuck with storage and transportation costs

By Kim Ki-sung, Staff Writer

In Daesin, a township in Gyeonggi province‘s Yeoju County, sand dredged from the Han River is piled high. More than ten storage sites have been set up to store sand and gravel removed as part of the Four Major Rivers Project. A green net has been laid over the area’s mountains, which are over ten meters high, but the overall effect recalls a cemetery mound.

The large eyesores cover 2.7 million square meters, with eighteen dumps distributed across more than 100 plots of land in the Daesin and Gangcheon townships. Sand dredged as part of the Han River Restoration Project amounts to 33 million cubic meters, or the equivalent of 2.2 million 15-ton dump trucks.

Yeoju County initially expected over 100 billion won (about $88.8 million) in profits for providing the space, but recently cut that figure back to 70 billion won (about $62.1 million). The stated goal is to sell six million cubic meters of sand and gravel annually over a period of six to seven years, but actual sales as of June 2011 amounted to just one million cubic meters.

　The resulting special accounts tax revenues for the county amount to about 10 billion won, but it had to pay 5.7 billion won last year to rent the storage sites, and it has to pay another 4.8 billion won this year. This means it will have to pay 10 billion won in rent each year if sales targets are not reached.

　The reason for the sluggish sales is a combination of a stagnant construction industry and the burden of transportation costs. An official at one greater Seoul area aggregate company explained, “What with the gas costs for covering the 30 to 40 kilometer distance from the sites, we wouldn‘t come take the sand and gravel away even if it were free.”

　“The sand from the South Han is unlikely to be used in the greater Seoul area unless gas prices fall below 1,000 won a liter,” the official added.

　Yeoju County governor Kim Jun-seok said, “It’s very difficult to predict the sand and gravel sales, but we are looking forward to the building of the 2nd Yeongdong Expressway and a double-track subway line in the Yeoju County area.”

　Sand and gravel sales have finished for Zones 3 to 5 of the Yeongsan River in the city of Naju, South Jeolla. The initial prediction was that the 10 billion won in profits from sales of 2.8 million cubic meters of aggregate would be enough to offset the Four Major Rivers project costs, but the actual extraction amount was just 1,891,000 cubic meters, with only 46% of it sand, bringing the profits down to just two billion won.

　Meanwhile, South Gyeongsang was found to have sold 1,007,100 cubic meters, or 55%, of the 1,823,900 cubic meters of sand and gravel extracted from the Nakdong River as of late 2011, earning 29,917,000,000 won in profits.

　Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

Posted on : Feb.22,2012 11:02 KST

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