1.27 Million Drank Substandard Water in 1997

During 1997, 1.27 million people drank poor quality water which violated 'drinking water criteria' set by the Ministry of Environment (MOE). This was publicly disclosed in a report which the MOE submitted to Rep. Lee Mi Kyung, on October 16, as part of the ongoing inspection of the administration at the National Assembly.
The number of filtration plants which violated safety standards reached 64, 10.9% of all water treatment plants (587). Kangwon Province has 20, the most, followed by Chonnam (15), Chungbuk (10), Kyungnam (7), Kyunggi (6), Kyungbuk (4), Chungnam (1), and Chunbuk (1).
Certain plants inspected contained high levels of potentially fatal ingredients including aluminum. Dr. Choi Eui So of Korea University said, 'In the past, drinking water management was not good in rural areas but recently, people in local cities are drinking contaminated water.'