On Saturday, participants will visit the Han River, one of the four rivers flowing through Seoul, to see how its streams and wetlands have been transformed.

“I hope the events will not remain a one-time occasion but a periodic global forum through which we can secure academic support and export opportunities for the water industry,” Shim added.

Launched in July 2009, the river restoration program plays a pivotal role in President Lee Myung-bak’s “green growth” policy, which targets sustainable development while energizing local economy and creating jobs.

The Lee administration allocated more than 22 trillion won ($18.5 billion) for the five-year mega project to face-lift more than 900 kilometers of tributary streams and adjoining wetlands and install natural disaster prevention facilities.

“It is great that the government has been building four times as many anti-disaster facilities as the current ones under the program in preparation for a rainstorm that might come once in 200 years,” Lee said in August.

“Because of this project, many waterside areas can fend off recurrent flood damage.”

According to government data, Korea spends 4.2 trillion won on recovery measures for flood damage.

Ministry officials said the project will stimulate the construction industry with some 190,000 new jobs. The sector makes up nearly 20 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

It will also reserve 1.25 billion tons of water by building small and medium-sized dams and scaling up reservoirs for agricultural use, they added, while enhancing water quality by blocking and purifying dirty water near rivers.

To boost clean energy supplies, the government is setting up solar and hydropower generators along the four rivers, which are expected to cut 100,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year, officials noted.

Last month, the Land Ministry unveiled some of fresh waterways and reservoirs as it is putting the finishing touches on the main courses of the four rivers ― Han River, Geum River, Nakdong River and Yeongsan River.

It plans to gradually open the 16 renovated reservoirs to the public by November, starting with Sejong and Baekje Reservoirs in the Geum River basin, South Chungcheong Province.

“Residents are now able to access the rivers and facilities around there for walking, biking, exercises, camping and other leisure activities,” the ministry said.

The project, however, has rekindled a heated debate over its efficacy in protecting the environment.

Civic groups and environmental activists claimed that a massive dredging of the riverbed aimed at digging waterways deeper causes some places to be even more vulnerable to flooding. Some scholars raised voice that the project is threatening local wildlife and the livelihoods of fishermen, as well as taking away nests from migratory birds and heaping pressure on the government budget.

The National Institute of Environmental Research said in a report that water quality of some areas along the Nakdong River is worse now than before the project, based on 2006 data.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)