Perfecting the irrigation system is of paramount importance in steadily increasing agricultural production and consolidating the material and technical foundations for it.

As farming is unthinkable apart from water, the establishment of a perfect irrigation system is a prerequisite for the sustainable and stable development of agricultural production.

The Ninth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea stressed the need to constantly push ahead with the perfection of the irrigation system of the country.

A step forward was made in the project last year, too, as in the previous year.

Different regions of the country directed efforts to readjusting and reinforcing the irrigation system and facilities.

Nampho Municipality completed the laying of inverted siphon for irrigation water No. 4 of the Ryonggang major waterway.

Those engaged in the project for expanding the capacity of the West Sea Barrage-South Phyongan Province inland waterway removed hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of subsoil in a section extending for dozens of kilometres of the waterway ahead of schedule.

North Phyongan Province pushed the project for expanding the Woldo tideland waterway through a coordinated army-people operation.

South Phyongan Province channelled efforts into completing the irrigation project which started in the previous year. As a result, it completed the dredging of the well-over-a-hundred-kilometre-long Kaechon-Lake Thaesong Waterway, Phyongnam irrigation waterway and other waterways spanning thousands of kilometres in its cities and counties. It also completed a huge project for turning tens of thousands of hectares of paddies into fully irrigated ones ahead of schedule by rounding off the repair of drainage lock gates and the construction of emptying gates as planned.

The construction and repair of groundwater facilities were forged ahead in different parts of the country.

South Phyongan Province stepped up the construction and repair of groundwater facilities to lay a foundation for attaining the grain production goal in any unfavourable weather conditions.

Kaechon City carried out its assignment for digging wells and pools before any others. And the province built or repaired groundwater facilities in hundreds of places in a short span of time to facilitate last year’s farming.

South Hamgyong Province and other areas made a great deal of successes in the construction of irrigation waterways and building and repair of groundwater facilities.

Due attention was paid to putting the irrigation system on an IT basis.

Efforts are now being made to establish a national irrigation information database and a well-ordered water management system from the top to water supply units and develop and introduce a water-level measurement system using the mobile telecommunications network.

Recently, different areas introduced a water management control support system and a real-time water-level measurement system in close contact with scientists of the Agricultural Informatization Institute under the Academy of Agricultural Science to survey and control the information of far-flung reservoirs in a unified way, thus saving much labour and time necessary for water management.