ソウル市、半地下住宅を禁止へ 豪雨で４人水死

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】韓国の首都ソウルで今週、記録的な豪雨による浸水で半地下住宅の住民４人が死亡したことを受け、同市当局は地下室の居住を禁止する方針を示した。半地下住宅は、米アカデミー賞を受賞した韓国映画『パラサイト 半地下の家族』で注目を浴びていた。
（写真はソウルで、浸水被害に遭った半地下住宅を清掃する作業員）
　当局の発表によると、豪雨では計１１人が死亡。うち４人は、半地下住宅の浸水により水死した。現場を訪れたＡＦＰ記者によると、８日に障害者女性と１０代の子どもを含む３人が死亡した同市冠岳区の半地下住宅では１１日、兵士と救助隊が泥まみれになった屋内から家財道具などを撤去していた。
　半地下住宅は、家賃が安いものの、狭くて湿気がたまりやすく、浸水が起こりやすい。公式統計によると、約２０万世帯が半地下住宅で暮らしており、同市の住宅戸数の約５％を占めている。
　半地下住宅の住民の死を受け、国内では怒りの声が相次いだ。被害を受けた住宅を訪れた尹錫悦（ユン・ソンニョル）大統領は、自然災害の際に貧困層などの弱者支援を強化するよう当局に要請。
　ソウル市当局は１０日、半地下住宅の建設の許可を中止し、既存物件についても段階的な廃止を進める方針を表明。地下・半地下の住宅使用の禁止に向け、政府と協議を始めるとした。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/08/12-12:54）

South Korea's capital has moved to ban the cramped basement flats made famous by Oscar-winning movie Parasite after four people drowned in subterranean dwellings during flooding caused by record-breaking rains this week.
Soldiers and relief workers were clearing debris Thursday from waterlogged, mud-covered homes in Gwanak district, an AFP reporter saw, where three tenants, including a disabled woman and a teenager, died Monday.
Their deaths -- trapped by floodwater in their basement apartment -- have caused public outrage, with President Yoon Suk-yeol visiting their destroyed home this week before calling on officials to do more to help the poor and vulnerable during natural disasters.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government has announced they want to get rid of tiny, cramped basement flats -- known as banjiha -- which are typically cheap to rent but prone to damp and flooding.
Around 200,000 households live in such flats, which make up around five percent of housing stock in the South Korean capital, according to official figures.
Seoul said in a press release Wednesday that it will stop issuing permits to construct such homes, while pushing to gradually phase out existing basement and semi-basement flats.
The city plans to begin discussions with the national government to ban the use of basements or semi-basement spaces for residential purposes, it added.
Four out of 11 people killed in this week's record downpours drowned after their basement flats were inundated with floodwater, officials have said.
Such abodes received global attention due to Bong Joon Ho's Parasite, which won the 2020 Best Picture Oscar and features a poor family living in a dank basement home.
Activists blamed the banjiha deaths this week on the government's housing policies, saying they were preventable disasters.
We condemn the government's negligence regarding those marginalised people in this housing, said the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice in a statement.
As rainfall becomes stronger and more frequent under the influence of climate change, (Seoul) must embark on a fundamental change of its approach to basement residents, it added.
Yoon has also blamed climate change for the rains and flooding, which he said were the worst since weather records began over a century ago.
Those who struggle financially or with physical difficulties are bound to be more vulnerable to natural disasters, he said.