Military Deployed as Prolonged Drought Shows No Signs of Relief

[Anchor]

The national firefighting mobilization order issued for South Gyeongsang Province, where the drought has been prolonging, has been extended. As water supply support continues for livestock farms as well as rice paddies and fields, even military units have stepped in to join all-out efforts to overcome the drought.

Reporter Kim Su-yun has the story.

[Reporter]

On today, the second day of the national firefighting mobilization order, 200 fire engines gathered from across the country supplied more than 7,600 tons of water to various rice paddies and fields in South Gyeongsang Province.

Some 20 vehicles from the South Gyeongsang Fire Headquarters also joined the water supply support.

In Haman, the Army deployed 15 water supply vehicles and about 40 troops to help resolve the drought.

[Choi Sung-sik / Commander, Hapcheon-Haman-Uiryeong Battalion, 39th Infantry Division, Republic of Korea Army : These are vehicles used during wartime for military operations and CBRN support. Water supply vehicles have been deployed to support civilians.]

As water poured like a waterfall into the dried-up waterway, farmers could not take their eyes off it.

[Jung Chang-baek / Haman County, South Gyeongsang Province : Water has been gushing out for about 15 days now. It feels like my clogged chest is finally open.]

However, water shortages are worsening due to the prolonged drought.

With Hamyang reaching the "caution" stage for agricultural water drought today, the entire South Gyeongsang Province has now entered drought stages.

Uiryeong and Changnyeong, which were previously at the "alert" stage, were upgraded to the "serious" stage, bringing the number of areas under the "serious" stage to five.

The average reservoir water storage rate in South Gyeongsang Province remains at 32.8 percent.

Requests for water supply support for livestock drinking water are pouring in.

The livestock farm visible next to me houses more than 20,000 pigs.

As these pigs faced a shortage of drinking water, firefighters who completed strict quarantine procedures stepped in to provide water supply support.

[Kang Byung-soo / Firefighter, Prevention Division, Yangsan Fire Station : We usually provide a lot of water supply support to places like rice paddies or fields, and livestock farms seem rare. But coming out to the field, the water supply is severely lacking and the situation is more serious than expected.]

Ultimately, the National Fire Agency has decided to extend the national firefighting mobilization order, which was originally set to end today, for the time being.

The Navy, Air Force, and Korea Forest Service also plan to provide water supply support soon.

The fire authorities plan to decide whether to lift the national firefighting mobilization order by monitoring precipitation and reservoir water storage rates if the drought situation improves.

(Video by: Jung Kyoung-moon)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.