In March 1991, a nauseating smell f

In March 1991, a nauseating smell from the water service tap was discovered by the people in Taegu city. The potent odor remained for more than one week.
Many citizens complained to the city authorities, but no reply at all. After hundred of people suffered from severe stomach disorders and even some pregnant women had miscarriages, the truth was unveiled.
The cause of the horrible smell in water was phenol, a toxic chemical which was discharged into the Nakdong River by a nearby factory, Doosan Electro-Material Company. The deadly chemical polluted water purification plants which supply tap water to Taegu citizens.
Faced with this sudden incident, Taegu YMCA immediately took action to respond to the problem. We organized the Network of Taegu citizens' Group with other civic groups and held rally to denounce the city authorities and the factory responsible for the incident. And then, to promote the improvement of water policy, this network launched a boycott campaign against the products of Doosan Company which produces many consumer goods such as beer and other drinks. With this campaign, the network organized a task team of lawyers to prosecute the responsible persons and to support the victims. The Minister of Environment and the owner of the factory were prosecuted for neglect of duty and for the illegal dumping of phenol, and finally the two resigned. This series of actions contributed to the citizens' awareness about environmental crisis in Taegu city.
One month later, 20th April 1991, Taegu YMCA organized the 'Taegu Citizens' Life Festival' to mark both Earth Day and the phenol incident in networking with other citizens' organization engaging in the environment movement.
The festival was held in Nakdong riverside and the several thousands of citizens participated including movement leaders, religious leaders, specially many professional artists like as musicians, painters, dancers, fashion designers and fashion models and so on .
It was really meeting point of both civil movement and civil culture.
This festival was the first citizens' cultural event concerned with environmental issues in Taegu and evaluated to be a turning point of Korean environmental movement. After then, every 20th April, Taegu citizens had met in the Nakdong riverside since 1994, and last 2 years, we met in the DongSungro-street, the center of downtown, for the green transportation campaign namely 'Life Festival-Marches of Bicycles. And in this year, the main issue of the festival was¡®Reduction of Wastes & Recycling Campaign¡¯.