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2023. January VOL. 658
- 2023. January VOL. 658
- ENG
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2023. January VOL. 658
K-water has achieved the A grade in the management performance evaluation of public institutions for two consecutive years in 2020 and 2021. Based on excellent financial results, it was evaluated that K-water completely overcame a financial stability crisis related to national projects and led carbon neutrality by joining the RE100 membership for the first time in Korea, in line with the declaration of ESG management. In addition, it was recognized for its excellent performance across management and major businesses, such as digitalization of all water management activities through the launch of a digital twin and AI water purification plant.
K-water is striving to regain public trust in tap water, which had deteriorated due to red tap water and larva discovered in tap water in local government areas. In particular, starting with nine water purification plants in 2021, the ISO 22000(food safety management system) certification was completely acquired for all 39 wide-area water purification plants by 2022, in recognition of K-water having secured leading capabilities for hygiene and safety of tap water.
On February 9, 2022, the Nakdonggang River Basin Water Management Committee voted to approve the plan to restore ecosystem in the brackish water zone for opening the estuary dam of the Nakdonggang River, which had been closed for 35 years, through verification experiments for three years(2018 to 2020), operation on a trial basis(in 2021), and initiatives with local communities, which have carried on from 2017. Starting with the vision declaration ceremony on February 18, 2022, seawater began to flow into the river and a brackish water zone was formed around 12 km upstream of the estuary dam in the year. The opening of the estuary dam is the first significant step taken for restoring a healthy ecosystem in the brackish water zone and establishing a framework for integrated estuary operation.
K-water is now a RE100 member by joining in April 2021 as the first public water institution in Korea, and has strived to implement the RE100 pledge in water management through low energy and development of renewable energy. In addition, K-water received the REC(Renewable Energy Certificate) by discovering the new value of large-scale hydropower, which has not been recognized, by persuasion and discussion with the government and the related institutions, with RE50 being achieved by 2022 and RE100 to be achieved by 2023, which is earlier than expected.
After the unification of water management, K-water’s swift efforts to integrate the national water supply plan led to transform the ‘comprehensive plan for the national water supply’ by the Ministry of Environment, and the ‘basic plan for water supply maintenance for wide areas and industries’ by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport into the ‘Basic Plan of the National Water Supply’ on October 5, 2022. The plan includes the specified policies and plans to realize the river basin-oriented integrated water management, such as the unification of water supply policy and facilities for the medium and long term, reinforcement of connection between regional and metropolitan facilities, and diversification of water resources utilization ranking criteria and intake sources. Accordingly, Korea has established a sustainable water utilization system to resolve the imbalance in water supply and demand and discrepant water supply services between regions, and preserve the water environment in the basins.
At present, K-water’s first and national largest seawater desalination project is being carried out smoothly by the Seawater Desalination Project Group of Daesan Coastal. This project began to resolve the water shortage in the western area of Chungcheongnam-do(Daesan Petrochemical Complex), with its main construction started in 2022 and slated to be completed by 2024.
The company-wide organizational culture special training program was held from September 29 to November 18, 2022 to boost communication between employees, which has been hindered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and instill an organizational cohesion as K-water employees. A total of some 2,900 employees attended in the training, which was held over 42 sessions in seven regions across the country, and they spent a special and valuable time by understanding ESG management and roles of leaders and subordinates, reconnecting as a unit, and getting refreshed through various experiential programs.
In March, 2022, K-water launched ‘Digital GARAM+’, a digital twin-based water management platform, as part of digital transformation of water management. The digital twin-based water management platform, which was built to respond to rapidly changing climate, is an integrated dam-river management system that overcomes the limitations of the existing water management system. By launching ‘Digital GARAM+ ’, K-water has secured advanced digital water management technology, and based on this, it participated in the Ministry of Environment’s trial project to build an urban-river digital twin water management system in September 2022, contributing to improving the disaster response system vulnerable to urban flooding.
