Jeonnam Province, Full Effort to Prevent Heatwave Damage After Typhoon

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam Province announced on the 2nd that with the dissipation of Typhoon Songda (No. 5) and Typhoon Trases (No. 6), and the influx of hot and humid air causing severe heatwaves, it plans to make every effort to prevent heatwave damage.

Since the first heatwave advisory was issued on June 19, Jeonnam has recorded a cumulative total of 33 heatwave days as of the 2nd.

This is 7 days more than the 26 heatwave days recorded during the same period last year.

During this period, there were 74 cases of heat-related illnesses, the deaths of a total of 24,684 livestock including pigs, chickens, and ducks across 151 livestock farms, and damage such as wilting and withering of crops over 471 hectares.

Jeonnam Province has designated the heatwave countermeasure period from May 20 to September 30 and is implementing various heatwave measures together with 22 cities and counties. However, to prevent loss of life and property caused by the heatwave, it has decided to strengthen publicity, monitoring, and prevention activities.

Accordingly, among existing heatwave measures, the frequency and number of welfare calls and text messages to vulnerable groups, as well as village and street broadcasts, will be increased.

The operation range of city and county road water spraying vehicles will also be expanded, and important heatwave mitigation facilities such as shade shelters near areas with dense pedestrian traffic and crosswalks will be continuously expanded to prevent damage.

In particular, to improve heatwave measures, based on a survey of about 520 residents and public officials, supplementary measures such as activating cooling centers, providing additional cooling costs for centers operating extended hours at night and on weekends, and distributing sunscreen to the elderly will be implemented immediately.

Additionally, the existing “Heatwave Preparedness Parasol Rental Service” reflected in this year’s heatwave measures will be developed into a “Mobile Parasol Rental Bus” in collaboration with the transportation industry, and the “Drone-based Wide-area Surveillance Activities” currently implemented in two cities and counties will be expanded to other cities and counties by increasing personnel and budget.

Efforts are also being made to protect residents’ valuable property through damage response activities in various sectors.

In the agriculture and livestock sector, the heatwave countermeasure situation room for agricultural and livestock products continues to operate, while encouraging enrollment in crop and livestock disaster insurance to prepare for natural disasters.

For heatwave damage prevention projects, 6.9 billion KRW is allocated to three projects including modernization of fruit production facilities and cost reduction for facility horticulture, and 4 billion KRW is allocated to four projects for livestock such as support for high-temperature stress alleviators and application of heat-blocking materials on barn roofs.

Since Governor Kim Young-rok’s special directive in 2018, Jeonnam Province has invested 61.6 billion KRW over five years through emergency reserves and the main budget to support heatwave damage prevention facilities and high-temperature stress alleviators in the livestock sector.

As a result, the number of livestock deaths in the province has significantly decreased from 557,000 animals at the end of July 2018 before the special directive to 23,625 animals (4%) during the same period this year.

In the fisheries sector, a high-temperature response team is operating to monitor the situation in vulnerable sea areas, and 10,938 units of high-temperature response equipment such as liquid oxygen supply devices and shading nets have been pre-installed to enable rapid response in case of high water temperatures.

To increase enrollment in aquaculture disaster insurance, the fishermen’s self-pay rate, which was 20%, has been lowered to 10% starting this year, and the insurance premium support limit will be raised from 5 million KRW to 10 million KRW.

Kim Shin-nam, Director of the Provincial Safety Office, said, “Although the beginning of autumn (Ipchu) is approaching, it is not yet a stage to be relieved. We will do our utmost to prevent and recover from heatwave damage until the heatwave ends, in cooperation with related departments such as health and welfare, agriculture and livestock food, and fisheries.” He urged residents, “Please do not let your guard down against heatwaves to prevent casualties from heat-related illnesses, and refrain from strenuous outdoor activities on days when advisories are issued.”

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