A Status of Agricultural Water Quality and Improvable Countermeasure in Korea

우리나라 농업용수 수질오염 현황과 개선대책

The water quality in the rural areas is degrading due to a variety of causes such as the increase of the urban sewage and industrial wastes, the disposal of solid wastes, the growth of livestock waste, the growth of leisure facilities, the establishment of agricultural industry estates and etc. The water pollutants are scarce while the effluent is increasing from wide scattered sources. The technology specifically designed for the rural wastes water treatment plant needs to be implemented with improvement of agricultural water quality. 1. An integrated management measures against water pollution sources. The prevention of water pollution is the best measures in the environmental pollution. Hence, the most effective measures needs to be against the sources. Small-scale water treatment plants needs to be constructed in each village in the rural areas. As for the industrial effluent, the effluent discharge needs to be strictly monitored. Government subsidy for the establishment of treatment plant for livestock wastes is necessary. 2. The establishment of national-wide network for agricultural water quality. The network for agricultural water quality have been operated to conserve the agricultural water quality, and to develop management policies by the assessment of water pollution in the rural areas. The results of agricultural water quality network indicates that the water quality is degrading not only around urban areas but also in the distant rural areas, and the water quality at the pumping stations and weirs is worse than that of reservoirs. 3. The legal, systematic, and technical approaches for the agricultural water quality management. The actions currently implemented for the improvement of agricultural water quality involve temporary measures such as the improvement of irrigation facilities. These contingency measures are not effective in the long-term, and sometimes bring secondary pollution. Therefore, integrated measures covering the whole water environment such as the flow, quality, river morphology, aquatic ecosystem, and the surrounding environment, need be invented and implemented. Besides, the legal, systematic, and technical frameworks for the management are not fully established so far. The technology for the treatment of rural water pollution should be refined afterwards, and the research for the development of rural waste water treatment plant should be carried out.