Gwangju City, Waterworks Headquarters Organizational Restructuring... Ordinance and Regulation Legislative Notice

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 2nd that it has prepared a reorganization plan for the Waterworks Headquarters to produce and supply clean and safe tap water to citizens and publicly notified related ordinances and regulations on the 30th of last month.

The reorganization plan mainly includes the establishment of regional waterworks offices to build an efficient maintenance system for water facilities, and the creation of a Water Operation General Division to strengthen crisis response management and policy functions in technology and water purification.

First, Gwangju City will efficiently manage numerous water facilities in the region by integrating the facility management office and five district-level regional offices into two regional waterworks offices (Dong·Buk and Seo·Nam·Gwangsan).

Currently, under the small-scale regional office system, it is difficult to efficiently manage various facilities such as aging pipes spanning 662 km and about 40,000 valves, making rapid and appropriate response difficult in case of tap water accidents. However, the regional waterworks offices are expected to enable self-response through integrated and expanded operation of maintenance personnel and water system control teams.

The city will establish the Water Operation General Division to enhance crisis response capabilities and strengthen policy functions in technology and water purification.

This reflects field opinions pointing out the need for a control tower function in case of accidents amid rapidly aging water facilities such as pipelines, and the absence of policy functions in technology and water purification.

To improve the quality of civil complaint services, a Civil Complaint System Improvement Team will be established.

The Civil Complaint System Improvement Team will play roles such as improving the complaint handling system, discovering areas for complaint system improvement, and developing various policies to promptly respond to increasing customer demands.

Additionally, to strengthen water quality management functions, the Water Quality Research Institute will be expanded and reorganized into two divisions: the Raw Water Management Division and the Distribution Water Research Division. The Water Purification Office team will also be adjusted to focus on essential functions to maximize the efficiency of tap water production and facility maintenance at purification plants.

Accordingly, Gwangju City's waterworks organization will be adjusted from the existing 2 departments, 5 divisions, and 9 offices to 2 departments, 6 divisions, and 5 offices, with the staff size remaining at 301 through reallocation without increase.

The reorganization plan publicly notified this time is scheduled to be submitted as an agenda item at the 1st regular session of the 298th City Council next month.

Moon Young-hoon, Director of the City Planning and Coordination Office, said, “This reorganization is being promoted to appropriately respond to the rising expectations of citizens regarding waterworks services and to carry out rapid and accurate maintenance of the rapidly increasing aging pipes.” He added, “We will continue to focus our administrative capabilities on making Gwangju a better place to live, a just and prosperous city.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.