"Chalttagu Larvae Gradually Decreasing" Deputy Mayor of Angyeongwon, Announcement on Jinhae Seokdong Water Purification Plant

Gyeongnam Changwon City Hall. / Photo by Se-ryeong Lee ryeong@

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] “We will mobilize all available means, including operating a 24-hour emergency response headquarters, to normalize tap water supply.”

Changwon City, Gyeongnam, held a briefing on the afternoon of the 15th regarding the response to the occurrence of Chironomid larvae at the Seokdong Water Purification Plant in Jinhae-gu.

On that day, Deputy Mayor An Kyung-won said, “Since the larvae were confirmed on the 7th, we have been monitoring 4 points in the production process, 13 points in the water storage tanks, and 20 points in the water supply pipes 24 hours a day.”

According to the city, the number of larvae found in the tap water production process gradually increased from 24 on the 8th, 102 on the 9th, and 155 on the 13th, then decreased to 90 on the 14th and 79 on the 15th.

Deputy Mayor An stated that since the 7th, seven emergency preliminary measures have been implemented to exterminate the live larvae.

As a result, larvae that were exterminated were found at the rapid filtration stage, the 8th step among the 13 water purification processes, and some very few larvae were killed or decomposed passing through the 9th ozone treatment facility, and were found at the 10th activated carbon filtration stage.

Deputy Mayor An said, “A special investigation committee composed of private experts and city council members is doing their best to identify the cause of the larvae occurrence and prevent recurrence,” adding, “Following two previous meetings, a technical review of all water purification processes was conducted on the morning of the 15th.”

He added, “The investigation committee agreed that cooperation with government agencies managing water is necessary to establish an overall water management system from raw water to purified water production, and that aging facilities should be comprehensively improved, including modernizing purification facilities to improve water quality.”

Changwon City announced that on the 15th, it completed supplementary construction of multi-layer filtration nets at the water purification plant inlet and has been supplying clean tap water through the purification plant since 6 a.m. that day.

Thereafter, the city plans to complete the installation of multi-layer filtration nets at 13 water storage tanks that receive water from the purification plant and send it to households by the 20th.

The city is currently discharging water suspected to contain Chironomid larvae inside the water pipes through fire hydrants and announced that rapid filtration cleaning will be completed within 10 days.

The activated carbon filtration will also be promptly replaced, and the standard process and advanced water purification process are planned to be fully normalized within 15 days.

Deputy Mayor An said, “We plan to actively reflect the feasible parts of the opinions from the investigation committee through phased budget acquisition,” and added, “Please trust the city and wait a little longer despite the inconvenience.”

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