A UNESCO-affiliated international water research institute is to open new headquarters in Korea next year.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Wednesday that the operational committee of UNESCO resolved earlier in the day to establish the International Hydrological Program research center in Korea.
The institute, to be located within the K-Water research complex in Daejeon, will be the fifth IHP center to open in Asia, following those in China, Malaysia, Japan and Indonesia.
The IHP is an intergovernmental science program which seeks to preserve and effectively use the world’s water resources. It currently involves a total of 188 member states.
“As soon as the resolution is passed at the UNESCO general meeting in October, we shall set the construction plans, in an aim to open the center in the second half of 2014,” said a ministry official.
