Follow-up Measures and Recurrence Prevention Plans After Heavy Rain... Oh Se-hoon Accelerates 'Flood Safety City'

Shoe Laces Retied by Oh Se-hoon, Creating a Flood-Safe City

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Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon is accelerating follow-up measures and recurrence prevention plans related to the concentrated heavy rainfall in the metropolitan area. It reflects his determination to make Seoul safe from flood disasters.

According to Seoul City on the 12th, Mayor Oh has significantly raised the city's flood control management targets. The hourly processing capacity will be increased from the current 30-year frequency standard of 95mm to at least a 50-year frequency of 100mm, and for the basin-shaped Gangnam area, it will be designed to handle a 100-year frequency of 110mm. In cooperation with the government, the construction of rainwater storage and drainage facilities in six habitual flood-prone areas, which had been suspended since 2011, will be resumed. A total of 1.5 trillion KRW will be invested over the next 10 years. Alongside this project, the city plans to invest a total of 3 trillion KRW by improving existing sewage pipelines, small-scale rainwater storage tanks, and rainwater pumping stations.

As the first phase, areas severely affected by flooding such as Gangnam Station vicinity, Dorimcheon, and Gwanghwamun will be completed by 2027. The second phase will be sequentially implemented by 2030, targeting areas including Sadang-dong in Dongjak-gu, Gangdong-gu, and Yongsan-gu, in line with related linkage projects or urban development progress.

To prepare for the concrete execution of these measures, the city has decided to immediately allocate related funds such as disaster management funds. A feasibility study to set directions regarding the actual conditions, installation methods, and scale for the six areas will be conducted in the second half of the year, and design costs will be reflected in the 2023 budget to expedite subsequent procedures. Mayor Oh stated, "Deep tunnel construction requires large-scale financial investment and is a mid- to long-term investment project for current and future generations," adding, "Despite the city's poor financial conditions, this is a proactive investment to protect citizens' safety, and if necessary, we plan to proceed even through issuing local bonds."

For damage recovery, the city plans to shorten the review period as much as possible to provide swift support. To this end, on the 10th, the city sent a disaster management fund application guidance letter to autonomous districts. Last year, the city supported approximately 56 billion KRW to 25 autonomous districts for flood prevention and recovery, and so far this year, it has provided 75.3 billion KRW. Since the 8th, the city has been operating the Disaster Safety Countermeasures Headquarters to maintain an emergency response system.

So far, among facilities under the jurisdiction of the Safety General Office, a total of 1,451 damage cases have occurred, including ▲potholes and road damage (1,043 cases), ▲flooding and damage on automobile-only roads (289 cases), ▲bridge pavement damage (72 cases), ▲underground road flooding and damage (35 cases), ▲private roads flooding (5 cases), ▲underground shopping mall flooding (4 cases), and ▲tunnel pavement damage (3 cases). Of these, recovery has been completed for 1,449 cases. The city is also putting full effort into pothole repairs. Emergency repairs are being carried out first to prevent safety accidents, followed by large-scale repairs after the rain stops.

The city has also decided to promptly handle flood debris. The amount of flood debris generated in the four districts severely affected by flooding?Seocho, Dongjak, Gwanak, and Yeongdeungpo?is expected to reach about 8,200 tons. For these four autonomous districts, flood debris under 500 tons per district will be immediately transported, while debris exceeding 500 tons will be transported after an on-site inspection by the Metropolitan Landfill Site Operating Committee's resident representative council. Additionally, the city will identify autonomous districts with surplus cleaning equipment and manpower to match and support those heavily affected by flooding, and will urgently provide disaster management funds to the districts for flood waste disposal.

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