Gwangju Storm Drains Proved Effective Against 'Record Heavy Rain and Typhoons'

Gwangju Metropolitan City has seen significant benefits from the rainwater inlets installed to prevent flood damage.

Gwangju City (Mayor Kang Gi-jung) announced on the 10th that despite continuous heavy rains during the recent monsoon season and the impact of Typhoon Khanun (No. 6), the rainwater inlets installed on roads helped minimize flood damage without any casualties.

The rainfall during the recent monsoon season averaged 1098 mm, which is close to the annual average precipitation of 1380 mm for the Gwangju area.

Gwangju City analyzed that the rainwater inlets played a crucial role amid frequent guerrilla-style heavy rains caused by climate change.

Rainwater inlets collect rainwater from roads and drain it to nearby streams through underground rainwater pipes. If these become blocked, urban flooding can occur.

During the continuous heavy rains of the recent monsoon season, the city mobilized all available personnel to manage the rainwater inlets and conducted “flood response drills” to enhance crisis response capabilities during flooding situations. Additionally, “manhole fall prevention facilities” were installed to prevent safety accidents.

Alongside this, the city operated a “Citizen Rainwater Inlet Management System” to encourage voluntary citizen participation, regularly conducting joint public-private rainwater inlet cleanups and public awareness campaigns.

From early this year until June, to prevent flooding caused by blockages from trash or fallen leaves in sewer pipes or rainwater inlets during heavy rains, equipment was deployed to maintain 111 km of sewer pipes, 15,546 rainwater inlets, and 587 manholes, ensuring thorough preparation.

The city regularly patrolled flood-prone areas to maintain blocked rainwater inlets. Some autonomous districts had district heads and administrative welfare center chiefs clean rainwater inlets by neighborhood. At the end of June, Gwangju City conducted joint flood response drills with autonomous districts to test rapid response capabilities in case of road or residential flooding.

In particular, the Water Management Policy Division of Gwangju City formed a situation room and assigned sewer management team staff to specific districts, giving them the task of cooperating with autonomous districts for swift response during flooding situations.

Moreover, the city did not neglect the prevention of safety accidents for citizens caused by flooding.

In preparation for accidents like the manhole cover opening and pedestrians falling into manholes during heavy rains in Seoul last year, 245 manhole fall prevention facilities were installed in flood-prone areas starting January this year, demonstrating excellent response capabilities with zero casualties.

Gwangju City manages a total of 74,913 rainwater inlets, and when these become blocked by trash, it is difficult for autonomous district management personnel alone to respond quickly.

To address this issue, since 2021, 77 citizen rainwater inlet managers have been designated and operated to encourage voluntary neighborhood rainwater inlet cleaning by residents.

This policy is evaluated as an excellent example of rainwater inlet management in Gwangju City, maximizing management effectiveness through public-private cooperation led by autonomous districts and administrative welfare centers to prevent flooding.

As another alternative to the shortage of rainwater inlet management personnel, in July, Gwangju City designated a cleaning week and conducted a large-scale cleanup of rainwater inlets in flood-prone areas with about 200 participants including autonomous districts and resident voluntary disaster prevention groups. In addition to the cleanup, campaigns were held to improve citizen awareness to prevent littering in rainwater inlets.

Furthermore, promotional videos and card news about rainwater inlets produced by the Ministry of Environment were posted on Gwangju City’s electronic billboards (Bitgoeul-ro, Seo-gu Culture Center) and various social media platforms (KakaoTalk, Facebook, YouTube) to maximize publicity effects.

Song Yong-su, Director of the Climate and Environment Bureau, said, “Thanks to Gwangju City’s innovative rainwater inlet management capabilities and the dedicated efforts of our staff, we were able to minimize flood damage during this monsoon season and typhoon. We will continue to maintain full preparedness without lowering our guard against heavy rains.”

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