Global economy magazine Fortune predicted the 21st century would be the era of water industry, calling water “Blue Gold.”

Countries are engaged in fierce competition in so-called “Waternomics” to secure stable water supplies and facilitate the growth of their domestic industries.

The Korean government is also paying renewed attention to the water industry as its new growth engine for the national economy. And the Korea Water Resources Corp., or K-water, has played the leading role.

K-water early this year announced its “Green Vision 2020,” which aims to make the agency into one of the world’s top three water-management companies by 2020, offering services to 50 million people, including 24 million in Korea and 26 million abroad. 

With an injection of 1.3 trillion won ($1.65 billion) in the coming years, the agency aims to secure more than 50 percent of its sales from overseas markets.

Starting with “Survey on the Fenhe River Basin of China” in 1994, K-water has completed 38 overseas projects in 20 countries. Currently, the agency is undertaking 22 projects in 17 countries, with total revenue of 3.65 trillion won ($3.37 billion).

With the establishment of an exclusive division for overseas business last year, K-water is stepping up efforts to share its water management know-how with other countries and help them better respond to water-related natural disasters.

In China, the world’s largest water market, K-water is participating in a 100,000 square-meter water supply facility project in Siyang, Jiansu, together with Shenzhen Water Corp., the nation’s second largest water company and Korea’s leading private water company, Kolon Water & Energy.

A special purpose company named Jiangsu Shenshui Water Co. was set up through joint investment of the K-water consortium and will rebuild the water treatment plant No. 1 to supply water to the residents of Siyang exclusively for the next 29 years.

K-water will be responsible for the entire local water supply process, including treatment, supply, billing and collecting water fees.

Another major overseas project is the Patrind Hydropower Project in Pakistan. K-water entered the Pakistani market in 2009 by acquiring a share of a local corporation in charge of the project.

Pakistan, suffering from power shortages, announced its largest-ever power project worth $400 million in 2002, involving the construction of a 150 mega watt hydropower plant in a tributary of the Indus River, some 120 kilometers northeast of Islamabad.

The agency has made efforts in building relations with Southeast Asian countries, inviting government officials to share water management know-how over the past 20 years.

One of the key target countries is Thailand, which is reviewing integrated water resources management, centering on the major rivers including the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok.

In December 2011, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and other Thai government officials looked around the sites of the four river project. President Lee Myung-bak also visited Bangkok to explain the project in person this year. 

The final bidder to conduct the $11 billion water management project in Thailand is expected to be selected in April.

K-water has high expectations as Korea is one of a few countries that has experience refurbishing the nation’s major rivers. And Korea and Thailand share similar rainfall characteristics, said officials.

K-water has also led the nation’s official development assistance activities using its accumulated water control technologies and experience.

Currently, eight ODA projects worth 9.2 billion won are under way, including a water supply project in Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, the management of the Bekhal Small Hydropower Plant in Iraq and the feasibility study for a hydropower plant project in Kyrgyzstan.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)