Pohang, a Safe City Overcoming Earthquakes! ... Smooth Support for Damage Relief and Urban Reconstruction

Pohang, Heunghae Eoullim Platform bird's-eye view.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Pohang, which suffered massive damage from the triggering earthquake that occurred four years ago, is overcoming the scars of the earthquake and laying the foundation for a new leap forward.

According to the 'Special Act on Earthquake' achieved through the unity of 530,000 Pohang citizens, support for damage relief for victims and urban reconstruction of Heunghae, the affected area, are progressing smoothly.

The city has been making its best efforts from the stage of enacting the special law and enforcement ordinance to ensure practical and sufficient support from the perspective of the victims, the citizens of Pohang.

Initially, the government planned to support only 70% of the damage amount with national funds for the victims, but through active efforts by the city, political circles, and the Earthquake Countermeasures Committee, the national funding ratio was decided to be 80%. Subsequently, with the additional 20% support decision by Gyeongbuk Province and Pohang City, a basis was established to receive full compensation for the damage amount.

Through active persuasion of the government and the Damage Relief Deliberation Committee under the Prime Minister's Office, expansions were achieved in support for common areas of apartment complexes (from 120 million KRW to 500 million KRW), support for small business owners and SMEs (from 60 million KRW to 100 million KRW), automobile damage support (from 2 million KRW to 60 million KRW), mental damage support, building tilt damage support, and support for mixed-use building damages.

Additionally, by providing support at the level of partial or half demolition for some apartment complexes dissatisfied with the sofa assessment, a result was achieved where evacuees from Heunghae Indoor Gymnasium voluntarily returned home after 1,435 days.

Pohang, a Safe City Overcoming Earthquakes.

From September 2020, about one year of receiving earthquake damage relief applications resulted in 126,071 damage cases being filed, and support payments have been completed for about 80% of them. Due to the much higher number of damage applications than initially expected, the city secured an additional 123 billion KRW on top of the original 375 billion KRW budget including national, provincial, and city funds, and is focusing on damage relief support.

To rebuild the heavily damaged Heunghae area due to the earthquake, Pohang City is investing a total of 289.6 billion KRW including national funds by 2024, carrying out special regeneration projects such as the construction of the ‘Happy City Harmony Platform’.

On the site of demolished houses such as Daeseong Apartments, public facilities including a public library, Ainuri Plaza (municipal daycare center), Buk-gu Health Center and Disaster Trauma Center, and a complex community center are under construction or planned to start construction. The construction of five multi-purpose disaster shelters is also being promoted.

To support residents in the densely affected areas, a public rental housing construction project (300 units) is also underway.

Along with this, various projects are actively progressing to ensure earthquake safety and revitalize the local economy, including the establishment of an Earthquake Safety Management Research Center, expansion of LPG fuel networks in earthquake-affected areas, construction of the East Sea Marine Complex Exhibition Center, and construction of community complex facilities.

A city official said, “We will promptly promote victim support and special regeneration projects in the affected areas so that Pohang can transform into a safe city that has overcome the earthquake.”

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