"What time is our environmental clock?"... Songpa-gu 'Water Day' Commemorative Campaign

[Seoul District News] Songpa-gu to Practice Environmental Protection with Environmental Groups and Children on the 22nd at Songpa Dullegil Seongnaecheon Area ▲Planting Water Purification Plants ▲Plogging ▲‘Environmental Crisis Clock’ Performance... Jongno-gu Distributes 1,500 Box Garden Sets... Dongdaemun-gu Holds Joint Civil-Government-Police Campaign

On March 22, in celebration of 'World Water Day,' an environmental campaign titled 'A Blue Planet for Our Children' was held at the Seongnaecheon section of the Songpa Dullegil trail. The photo shows Songpa District Mayor Park Seong-su and participants performing the 'Environmental Crisis Clock' performance. Photo by Park Seong-su

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Songpa-gu (Mayor Park Seong-su) held an environmental campaign titled 'A Blue Earth for Our Children' on March 22, the 30th ‘World Water Day,’ along the Seongnaecheon section of the Songpa Dullegil trail.

Every year on March 22, the United Nations (UN) designates ‘World Water Day’ to raise awareness of the worsening water scarcity and water pollution issues and to commemorate efforts to resolve them. Songpa-gu resonates with this purpose and continues activities to remind people of the importance of water annually.

On the 22nd, the district expressed its commitment to carbon neutrality by performing various activities around Seongnaecheon on the Songpa Dullegil trail, pledging to restore a blue Earth for children.

Attending the event, Mayor Park Seong-su said, “Seongnaecheon is a representative natural ecological stream in Songpa, nurtured through continuous efforts to revive ecology by channeling Han River water into a dry stream,” adding, “Carbon neutrality is not a choice but a survival strategy to pass on clean water and waterfront environments to future generations,” emphasizing environmental protection and carbon neutrality practice.

The event was attended by over 50 members from environmental organizations including ▲Songpa-gu Housewives Environmental Council ▲Blue Environment Movement Headquarters ▲Soli Nature Love. They planted iris, known as a water purification plant, at the Seongnaecheon Water Light Plaza and practiced ‘plogging’ by walking 1.7 km from the Water Light Plaza to the Water Sound Plaza while picking up trash.

Children also participated, presenting the ‘Environmental Crisis Clock’ performance. The Environmental Crisis Clock divides the global environmental and climate crisis levels into times from 0:00 (midnight) to 12:00 (noon), expressing conditions as ‘Good,’ ‘Unstable,’ ‘Serious,’ and ‘Dangerous.’ It is organized and announced annually by the Environmental Foundation.

At the event, Mayor Park Seong-su stated, “Currently, South Korea’s Environmental Crisis Clock points to 9:38 PM, which is at the ‘Dangerous’ level. We will actively promote eco-friendly policies such as ecological conservation and greenhouse gas reduction to turn back the clock,” and reaffirmed the commitment to carbon neutrality by turning back the clock hands with attendees.

Additionally, Mayor Park said, “We will continue to do our best to become a ‘carbon-neutral leading city, an ecological city where nature and water live, Songpa.’”

Songpa-gu established the ‘Songpa-type Green New Deal Carbon Neutral City Plan’ in 2020, the first among Seoul’s autonomous districts, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 through various policies. As a result, last year, it reduced 101,010 tons CO2eq, achieving 111% of the annual target and leading carbon neutrality efforts.

Jongno-gu supports residents to enjoy the rewarding experience of growing and eating vegetables in daily life and to become familiar with eco-friendly urban agriculture.

Accordingly, from this month, it is promoting the ‘2022 Eco-friendly Box Garden’ distribution project targeting residents and local institutions and organizations.

The total number of box garden sets distributed is 1,500, each consisting of ▲box garden main body (with wheels) ▲20ℓ of soil ▲lettuce and chicory seedlings ▲water tray (base plate) ▲L-shaped hose ▲absorption wick, etc.

A self-pay cost of 8,000 KRW per set is charged.

The size is 650 mm (width) × 430 mm (depth) × 405 mm (height), and the container is simplified to allow cultivation not only on rooftops or stairs but also in narrow indoor spaces such as balconies.

It also features a deep watering system that supplies moisture for a long time, prevents overflow by water level checking, and minimizes soil loss by using an L-shaped hose, making it consistently popular among residents dreaming of becoming urban farmers.

The district plans to accept applications for the box garden through the Seoul Urban Farmer Portal website this month and deliver them to the applicants’ addresses starting from the third week of April.

Besides distributing box gardens, Jongno-gu continuously organizes urban garden creation and management, related education, and events. It won the grand prize in the ‘2021 Autonomous District Urban Agriculture Excellence Evaluation’ hosted by Seoul City last year.

Despite limited cultivation space compared to other areas due to its location in the city center, the district was highly praised for continuously discovering leftover spaces to create urban gardens and actively supporting residents’ urban agriculture activities.

For example, it created a ‘bespoke garden’ tailored to consumer demands and collaborated with social welfare facilities and educational institutions to conduct horticulture programs.

A district official said, “This year, we are preparing various programs so that anyone exhausted by the prolonged COVID-19 situation can safely enjoy participating in urban agriculture. Among them, the distribution of box gardens is increasingly popular every year because urban residents who find it difficult to participate in gardening can grow edible crops at home, not just ornamental plants.”

Dongdaemun-gu (Mayor Yoo Deok-yeol), Dongdaemun Police Station, and the student councils of local universities (Kyung Hee University, University of Seoul, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies) are joining forces to conduct a crime prevention campaign on university campuses from the 23rd to the 31st.

Through this campaign, they will promote city and district projects available to residents to prevent various crimes, such as Safe Return Scouts, Safe Delivery Lockers, and Safe Keeper Houses, and inform about crime prevention methods and responses for different types of crimes, including sophisticated voice phishing and cyber sexual crimes.

Additionally, in collaboration with the Dongdaemun Police Station’s Community Safety Division, the district will conduct a crime safety survey to prevent crimes targeting the increasing number of single-person households and reflect the survey results in crime prevention environment projects.

A resident participating in the campaign on the 23rd said, “There have been many projects I didn’t know about and couldn’t use. I realized that our participation is the most important for crime prevention, and I will actively share the newly learned methods with those around me to help make Dongdaemun-gu a better place to live.”

Mayor Yoo Deok-yeol of Dongdaemun-gu said, “Since the campaign is held in university areas with many female single-person households and people active late into the night, it is expected to have a high effect on increasing the use of crime prevention services,” adding, “Taking this campaign as an opportunity, Dongdaemun-gu will continue to build a public-private-police cooperative system to create a crime-free city.”

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