Agricultural reservoirs in Milyang, South Korea, have nearly run dry due to a severe heatwave and record-breaking drought.
The crisis threatens the livelihoods of farmers across four villages that rely on these reservoirs for irrigation. With water levels plummeting, crops are at risk of failure if emergency measures are not implemented.
Water levels in the affected reservoirs have dropped to approximately 1% [1]. This depletion follows the lowest rainfall recorded since 1994 [2]. The extreme conditions have transformed the reservoir beds into parched landscapes where the earth has cracked and hardened.
Im Hyung-jun, a reporter for YTN, said the ground is cracked like a biscuit and the soil crumbles easily when held in the hand [3].
Local residents expressed growing alarm over the lack of water. Seok Cha-gyun, a resident of Muan-myeon in Milyang, said the situation is very serious [4].
The drought is the result of a combination of persistent heat and a lack of precipitation. The scarcity of agricultural water is creating an urgent need for alternative water sources to prevent total crop loss in the region.
“The ground is cracked like a biscuit and the soil crumbles easily when held in the hand.”
The depletion of these reservoirs to 1% highlights the increasing vulnerability of South Korean agriculture to extreme weather patterns. Because this is the lowest rainfall since 1994, it suggests a systemic failure in current water storage capacities to withstand prolonged heatwaves, potentially necessitating a shift in regional irrigation infrastructure.
