Gwanak-gu District Mayor Park Jun-hee conducted a field inspection Thursday to check on heat-vulnerable residents — including the elderly and children — as temperatures in the district soared to around 39 degrees Celsius.
Park visited six sites in sequence: a children's group home, a homeless self-sufficiency facility called Daehan Seonggonghoe Salimteo, a sheltered workshop for people with disabilities, the Ganggamchan Saemmul bottled-water refrigerator station, the home of an elderly resident identified as heat-vulnerable, and Sinil Senior Center, a designated cooling shelter.
At Daehan Seonggonghoe Salimteo, Park delivered fans and other daily necessities to residents and said he had come "to see what the district needs to be doing in this heat." When residents raised concerns about electricity bills from running air conditioners for extended periods and called for improvements to meal support, Park directed relevant departments to review the on-site requests and said he would consult with the Seoul Metropolitan Government on whether electricity bill subsidies were possible.
At the Ganggamchan Saemmul bottled-water refrigerator station in Euncheon-dong's village square, Park joined members of the voluntary disaster prevention corps in handing out cold bottled water directly to passersby. He checked the water supply status and the condition of the refrigeration units and listened to residents' feedback on any inconveniences. The Ganggamchan Saemmul stations operate at three locations — Gwanaksan Water Play Park, beside the Byeolbit Naerin Cheon Seowon pedestrian bridge, and Euncheon-dong village square — providing an average of about 1,500 bottles of water per day to residents.
Park then visited the home of an elderly resident who had been identified as an at-risk household and was receiving integrated care services — including residential relocation support and connection to a care worker — to help restore daily life. He delivered daily necessities and carefully checked the resident's health and cooling conditions.
The final stop was Sinil Senior Center, a cooling shelter, where Park inspected facility safety and checked on the wellbeing of elderly visitors. "I am always thinking about how we can better care for our senior residents within the district's administration," he said, adding that the district would do its best to make Gwanak-gu a place where seniors can live healthy and happy lives through expanded senior center programs, five-day-a-week meal support subsidies and elderly employment support.
To date, Gwanak-gu has distributed cooling supplies to heat-vulnerable residents, providing circulators to 64 households, summer blankets to 100 households, and 109 heat wave response kits, while supplying fans and air conditioners to 60 cooling shelters. The district is also replacing or installing air conditioners in 245 households and providing energy vouchers to 11,781 households.
Alongside this, the district is identifying heat-vulnerable households at risk by drawing on crisis-information big data and a community welfare safety network that includes Annyeong Salpimi, Uri Dongne Dolbomdan and Iut Salpimi — three resident-monitoring programs operated through public-private cooperation. During the heat wave period, the district is conducting intensive care checks and welfare calls through its "Ttokttok Anbu Hwagin" automated check-in service and IoT smart plugs.
While heat wave advisories remain in effect, the district's disaster safety response headquarters is continuously monitoring weather conditions. The district is also operating cooling shelters and other heat-reduction facilities, conducting welfare checks on vulnerable residents, protecting workers at construction sites and outdoor workplaces, and promoting heat illness prevention guidelines.
"I believe Gwanak-gu can only be healthy and happy when everyone — children, people experiencing homelessness, and seniors — is healthy and happy," Park said. "Heat waves can pose a serious danger to vulnerable residents in particular, so we will do our best to swiftly connect people with the support they need until the heat wave ends, so that every resident can get through the summer in good health."
seouldream01@heraldcorp.com
