Friday afternoon, with the last truckload of rocks, the construction of the 33-kilometer-long dike on the Saemangeum tidal flats on the country's west coast came to an end. The construction is part of the Saemangeum reclamation project, designed to transform tidal flats into arable land and a freshwater reservoir.

The project calls for one of the biggest landfill in history, covering about 400 sq.km, two thirds the area of Singapore. A long, hard road led to the completion of the seawall. The project started in 1991, but was suspended several times due to opposition from environmental activists.

While the government says the project will give the country more farmland, activists claim the environmental damage will be far greater than the economic benefits. In February 2005, the Seoul Administrative Court ordered the government to stop or modify the project, but a higher court overturned the ruling in December, taking the matter to the Supreme Court. In February this year, the nation's top court finally gave the green light to the project, ending the five-year legal battle.

Now the government plans to strengthen the structure until the end of this year and build roads on the seawall by 2007 before transforming the tidal flats into farmland and a reservoir over the next 10 years.

Arirang News