Yangcheon-gu, Detailed Inspection of Household Sewage Pipes in Semi-basement Houses

Proactive Inspection of Individual Drainage Facilities for 61 Households of Severely Disabled and Elderly Residents in Semi-basement
Providing One-stop Service from Pre-rainy Season Inspection, Drainage Support to Post-maintenance Follow-up to Prevent Flood Damage

Yangcheon-gu (District Mayor Lee Gi-jae) announced that it will newly operate a ‘Personal Drainage Facility Inspection Service’ to help elderly residents and severely disabled individuals living in semi-basement homes, who are vulnerable to flooding, safely get through the summer.

‘Personal drainage facilities’ refer to household sewage pipes that connect domestic wastewater and stormwater (rainwater) to public sewage pipes installed underground along the roads. Neglecting maintenance can cause various foreign substances to accumulate, leading to sewage backflow during rainfall.

In particular, when such sewage backflow occurs, severely disabled and elderly households living in semi-basement homes find it difficult to repair or seek help on their own, resulting in greater damage.

With this in mind, the district has proactively introduced a customized ‘Personal Drainage Facility Inspection Welfare Service’ specialized for flood-vulnerable households. Before the rainy season begins in earnest, the service will provide a one-stop solution from structural problem improvements through ‘pre-inspection’ to ‘drainage support’ and ‘post-management.’

The project targets 61 semi-basement homes with a history of flooding, where severely disabled individuals reside or where the head of the household is an elderly person aged 65 or older. The district finalized the target households after a preliminary on-site survey by local community centers familiar with the area and will begin full-scale operation starting this month.

First, by May, before the rainy season, a professional inspection team commissioned by the district will visit the target households directly and use endoscopic cameras to check for the accumulation of foreign substances and damage inside the personal drainage facilities. If the sewage pipes are blocked by foreign substances, cleaning operations such as dredging will be carried out to secure the flow space.

If the facilities are damaged and require repair, administrative guidance and education measures will be taken so that the building owner, who is responsible for maintenance under the Sewerage Act, can carry out repairs. The district plans to continuously manage and follow up to ensure that improvement works are properly conducted. In case of sewage backflow caused by summer rainfall, the district will promptly deploy specialized personnel to the site to carry out drainage work quickly.

Lee Gi-jae, Mayor of Yangcheon-gu, said, “We have proactively introduced a personal drainage facility inspection project, which is difficult to manage at the household level, so that flood-vulnerable households can spend the summer without worrying about flood damage.” He added, “We ask for active cooperation when the inspection team visits each household in the future.”

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