[Herald Business = Senior Reporter Park Jong-il] Seoul's Seongdong-gu announced it will begin full operation of its "Seongdong Water Depot" program on Friday to protect residents from heat-related illnesses and dehydration during the ongoing heat wave.
The Seongdong Water Depot is a community-focused heat-relief facility that places refrigerated bottled water at parks, riverside paths and other popular outdoor spots, making cold drinking water freely available to everyone — including children, the elderly and others especially vulnerable to extreme heat.
This year's program runs from Friday through Aug. 30, with 3,200 chilled bottles distributed twice daily — at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The eight locations are Eungbong Sports Park, the entrance to Daehyeonsan Reservoir Park, near the Majang-dong Cheonggyecheon Ecology School, Geumho Interchange, Oksu Interchange, the Seongsu Hanshin Apartment interchange, Exit 2 of Yongdap Station and Zone 9 of Songjeong Embankment Road.
To minimize the need for residents to go outside during the hottest part of the day, the afternoon distribution time has been pushed back this year to 5 p.m., later than in previous years.
To improve convenience and ensure a steady supply, three locations — Eungbong Sports Park, Geumho Interchange and the Seongsu Hanshin Apartment interchange — will pilot vending-machine-style depots equipped with personal authentication, allowing the one-bottle-per-person limit to be enforced more efficiently.
Staff drawn from each neighborhood community center's volunteer disaster-prevention corps will be on site to keep operations orderly. The bottles are label-free to reduce environmental impact, and separate recycling bins will be installed at each location so empty bottles can be sorted and collected on the spot.
"With the heat wave continuing day after day, residents' health and safety have never been more important," said Seongdong-gu District Mayor Yoo Bo-hwa. "We will keep expanding community-level heat-relief measures that residents can feel in their daily lives — just like the Water Depot — and do our utmost through hands-on, on-the-ground responses so that everyone can have a safe summer."
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