An ad hoc committee announced this week the results of its investigation into the four-river development projects undertaken during the Lee Myung-bak administration.

To sum up the findings of the 92-member panel, the projects have achieved their goals to a large extent, although there are some minor problems that need to be fixed.

The panel, which included civilian experts, said that the 16 dams built under the 22 trillion won project had no serious structural and safety problems.

It also said the projects proved effective in lessening the risk of floods and utilizing water resources to cope with droughts. “By and large, the four-river development projects have attained their objectives,” it said.

The panel at the same time said that there are some problems that needed to be addressed, including leaks and cracks found at six of the dams.

It also found that the projects damaged the ecosystem in some areas. The water quality in most areas has improved, but worsened in some areas like those on the Yeongsangang River.

As expected, the announcement, which wrapped up the panel’s 16-month-long investigation, drew mixed reactions, with concerned parties trying to interpret it to their own advantage.

The ruling party said the panel’s conclusion should end the long-lasting political feud over the projects and that the government now should focus on fixing the problems exposed by the investigation.

But the opposition rejected the panel’s conclusion that the projects attained most of its main objectives, trying to highlight only their negative aspects.

The New Politics Alliance for Democracy said the panel’s findings confirmed the need to carry out a special parliamentary investigation and a probe by an independent prosecutor.

It is true that the investigation found that the projects caused some technical and environmental problems. But the panel’s findings contradict much of what the opposition and harshest critics of the projects have been arguing ― that some of the dams were on the brink of collapse and the ecosystem along the four rivers suffered catastrophic, irreparable damage.

There is no doubt that huge infrastructure schemes like the river development projects must be subject to stringent public and parliamentary scrutiny, but the opposition is not entitled to condemn them as a total failure only because they were undertaken by its political foe.

The river development projects are one of the many controversies in this society over which disputes are fanned by political confrontations between the ruling and opposition parties and between the conservatives and progressives.

Misdeeds and wrongdoings should not be condoned if they have done great harm to the nation. We also need to pay heed to the panel’s findings that one of the biggest problems with the river development projects was that they were rushed in too short a time, a result of the Lee administration’s misguided push to complete them during its five-year tenure.

But the ad hoc committee’s overall findings tell us that the projects should not be subject to politically motivated dispute. We now should devote ourselves to remedying the problems with them, instead of continuing wasteful political bickering.