September 1, 2025
SEOUL – South Korea is grappling with an escalating water crisis in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, where President Lee Jae Myung declared a “state of national disaster” over the weekend after drought pushed the region’s main reservoir to unprecedented lows.
On Sunday, the Obong Reservoir, which supplies nearly 87 percent of the city’s household water, fell below the 15 percent storage threshold widely regarded as the minimum for potable supply, making further distribution nearly impossible.
By 7:40 a.m. Sunday, storage had dropped to 14.9 percent, down 0.4 percentage point from the previous day. With levels slipping past the critical line, the city government began shutting off 75 percent of household meters and halted the supply of agricultural water.
Lee’s disaster declaration Saturday marked the first time a natural disaster has prompted such a measure.
In previous years, such disaster zone declarations were limited to social disasters, such as the Yangyang wildfire in 2005, the Taean oil spill in 2007, the Goseong wildfire in 2019 and the Uljin-Samcheok forest fire from 2022.
The emergency measure is issued when a disaster occurs or is likely to occur, enabling the government to mobilize necessary personnel, equipment and supplies.
According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the order took effect as of 7 p.m., Saturday, after Lee visited the Obong Reservoir and presided over a drought response meeting at Gangneung City Hall.
The order also came a day after the Gangwon provincial government formally requested the central government declare it a disaster, citing deteriorating conditions.
Following the city’s disaster declaration, the Gangwon provincial government held a drought response meeting Sunday and raised its emergency response posture to Level 2 under the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters’ system.
In Korea, a Level 2 response entails the full-scale mobilization of all administrative resources, with the provincial vice governor serving as the head of the headquarters.
According to the Gangwon Fire Headquarters, 71 fire department water tankers have been deployed as of 9 a.m., Sunday, including 50 water tankers mobilized by the National Fire Agency, with plans to supply an additional 2,500 metric tons of water every day.
The government has created a support group, bringing together officials from key ministries and local governments, including Gangneung city and Gangwon Province, to mobilize resources, mitigate the drought’s impact and ease inconvenience for residents.
The drought in Gangneung has been coined a “flash drought” by experts, caused by scarce rainfall and record-breaking heat waves that quickly evaporated the little amounts of rain in the city.
According to weather records from the Korea Meteorological Administration, Gangneung’s cumulative rainfall this year until Friday was 404.2 millimeters, just 40 percent of the city’s average from previous years.
Less than 5 mm of rain is forecast to fall in Gangneung during the day on Monday, far below the level required to relieve the city of its longstanding drought. No further rainfall is forecast until Sept. 10 at the earliest.
Depending on rain forecasts within the next few weeks, the government expects the water storage levels in Obong Reservoir to drop to 9.7 percent within four weeks if no significant rain occurs.
Water scarcity in Gangneung is far from a new phenomenon.
Since the 1990s, Gangneung has repeatedly experienced periodic droughts and water supply disruptions, highlighting the vulnerability of its water management system.
In 2002 a typhoon cut tap water for four days, in 2009 an extreme drought left supplies depleted and in 2014 reservoir levels plunged again before a sudden downpour offered temporary relief. As recently as the summer of 2024, levels fell below 30 percent, prompting citywide conservation measures.
The frequent droughts in Gangneung are attributed to its geographical location, which makes it especially prone to water shortages.
Situated on the east coast and separated from the rest of the peninsula by the Taebaek Mountains, Gangneung receives less consistent rainfall than other parts of the country in the west. Much of its annual precipitation also comes in short, heavy bursts during typhoons, which often flow out toward the sea without replenishing reservoirs.
Gangneung’s heavy dependence on the Obong Reservoir only adds to the problem; it lacks the storage capacity of larger multipurpose dams and dries out more quickly during prolonged heat waves, which have become a norm as the climate crisis worsens.
For decades, local authorities have floated plans such as releasing water from Doam Dam in neighboring Pyeongchang to supplement Gangneung’s supply, but the proposal stalled amid strong opposition from civic and environmental groups over pollution and ecological damage.
Observers note that while groups opposed the plan, they failed to suggest viable alternatives, while the city government, central authorities and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., which operates the dam, all deflected responsibility.
Experts warn that unless Gangneung shifts from crisis-driven, short-term solutions to sustainable water management, the city is destined to repeat the same cycle of water scarcity.
“While emergency drought measures often focus on rationing or building new infrastructure, Gangneung should also turn to sustainable solutions such as rainwater harvesting,” professor Han Moo-young from Seoul National University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering said during a radio interview with MBC.
Han pointed out that “The city receives about 1.5 billion tons of rainfall a year, but most of it is simply allowed to run off into the sea.”
“If rain falling on the rooftops of large facilities, such as gyms or schools, were collected and reused, Gangneung could diversify its sources instead of relying only on mountain reservoirs,” Han underscored.