[Editorial] Harming national interest

Korea Water Resources Corp. is set to take legal action against Korean environmental activists who recently made misleading allegations against it in Thailand. The company is on the brink of winning two water management contracts there with a combined value of 6.1 trillion won.

The state-run corporation heads a Korean consortium that was chosen on June 10 as the preferred bidder for two key components of the 11.5 trillion-won megaproject promoted by the Thai government to prevent the Chao Phraya River from flooding.

On June 20, the corporation, also called K-Water, said the consortium successfully completed price negotiations with the Thai government, which implied it was virtually picked as the successful bidder. The final contract is expected to be signed in September.

Yet environmental activists from Seoul tried to rain on the corporation’s parade by making allegations that seriously undermined its credibility.

In an interview with a Thai language paper, Yum Hyung-cheol, secretary-general of the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement, said K-Water was not qualified for the Thai project because it had no experience in managing large-scale construction work.

Yum also tried to depict K-Water as a poorly managed company by saying that its debt ratio surged by as much as 700 percent in recent years.

The activist asserted that the corporation carried out the Four-River Restoration Project in Korea in an expedient and irresponsible way. He said it built dams without evaluating their impact on the environment and local heritage.

The activist’s assertions are not exactly true. K-Water has carried out many large-scale water development projects at home and abroad, which qualifies it for the flood prevention work in Thailand.

The company’s financial soundness has worsened rapidly since 2008, with its debt surging from 1.9 trillion won to 13.7 trillion won in 2012. Yet the rapid increase was to the four-river project, which it financed on behalf of the Korean government.

Regarding the impact the river dams have on the environment and nearby areas, it is still too early to say anything in definitive terms.

K-Water and its members of the consortium were chosen in recognition of their expertise. To allege that it was due to other, more dubious reasons is an insult not just to the Korean firms but to the Thai government.