This photo provided by the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology shows a bypass-type sand dam.
SEOUL, Sept. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — The Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology announced that it had developed the nation’s first sand dam technology to ensure a stable supply of drinking water in remote mountainous areas.
Sand dams are facilities that have typically been employed in dry regions such as Africa. By retaining water from floods, which rarely occur in such regions, sand dams use the water stored in sand particles during the dry period.
For residents living in remote mountainous valleys, South Korea has relied on water trucks to supply drinking water during extreme droughts.
The research team built a bypass-type sand dam in the town of Buksan village in Chuncheon, 75 kilometers northeast of Seoul.
The bypass-type sand dam functions by indirectly taking in riverbed water contained in gravel and sand layers on the banks of a river.
Thanks to the construction of the sand dam, the water supply increased to 150 tons per day on average and the quality of water was good enough to be used as drinking water.
In particular, even during periods of extreme drought, the sand dam can ensure continuous water supply for at least 10 days.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
