Gwangju Faces Water Outage Affecting 1 Million... 'Water Treatment Plant Valve Malfunction'

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Gyumin] Approximately one million citizens of Gwangju are experiencing inconvenience due to a water outage. This is reported to be caused by a valve malfunction at the water purification plant.

The Gwangju Waterworks Headquarters suspended water supply from 1 PM on the 12th to the Seo-gu, Nam-gu, and Gwangsan-gu areas, which receive tap water from the Deoknam Water Purification Plant. Initially, the city notified the outage to the three districts via safety alert messages. However, it was later revealed that Cheomdan 1 and 2 districts in Buk-gu, which were not included in the messages, were also affected by the outage.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Accordingly, the city only informed Buk-gu residents about the possibility of cloudy water inflow through safety alert messages one hour after the outage began.

The Waterworks Headquarters confirmed a malfunction in the main valve that sends purified water to the reservoir around 6 AM that day and is currently repairing it.

The total population residing in Seo-gu, Nam-gu, and Gwangsan-gu is 900,000. Including parts of Buk-gu, it is tentatively estimated that one million citizens are suffering from the water outage.

Apartment complexes, which have large water tanks, were able to use stored water. However, standalone houses began experiencing muddy water shortly after the outage started, causing significant inconvenience. Some restaurants and coffee shops were also unable to take orders or operated with restrictions.