South Korea has been facing unusually violent weather for several days. Nearly eleven people died in the north of the country, including six in the capital, Seoul, and eight people are still missing, authorities announced on Thursday (August 11th). Some drowned in their homes, trapped in basement accommodations (flood in Korean), surprised by the sudden irruption of water through the windows overlooking the street.
Faced with these tragedies, the municipality of Seoul intends to take steps with the government to ban building permits for basement and semi-basement dwellings, reports the Korea JoongAng Daily. The owners of flood already existing will have twenty years to requalify them for non-residential use, announces the town hall.
drowned family
This decision comes after the tragic drowning in their apartment of a 47-year-old woman and her two daughters in the district of Sillim-dong, south of the capital. The South Korean President, Yoon Suk-yeol, accompanied by the mayor of Seoul, Oh Se-hoon, went there to see the living conditions of the victims.
The daily recalls that these accommodations, notably seen in the multi-award-winning film by Bong Joon-ho Parasiteare mostly occupied by “low-income families who settle there for lack of anything better”.
“It is not so easy to find a place in social housing, and people like us can only sigh when we are ordered to leave our basement houses, which we still find livable”testifies a resident of a flood to Sillim-dong with the newspaper. Hence the need for the municipality to“invent realistic solutions”.