Ulsan City to Directly Compensate for 'Cloudy Tap Water' Damage

State Compensation → Direct Handling by Local Governments

Occurred in Jung-gu and Buk-gu Last November

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Citizens of Ulsan who suffered damages due to ‘cloudy tap water’ will be able to receive compensation from Ulsan City in the near future.

On the 15th, Ulsan City announced that it will pursue direct compensation through damage assessment for physical damages caused by cloudy tap water in Jung-gu and Buk-gu areas on November 3 and 4 of last year.

The Ulsan City Waterworks Headquarters individually guided affected residents to apply for national compensation for damages such as water tank cleaning, business compensation, water purifier filter replacement, and bottled water purchase caused by the cloudy water at that time. However, the application process was complicated and the compensation took a long time, causing inconvenience.

Accordingly, Ulsan City decided to change to direct compensation through a damage assessor, bearing a fee of about 10 million won, to minimize residents’ inconvenience.

On the 13th, a prior text message was sent to inform about the change in compensation method, and on the 15th, written guidance on damage assessment requests and compensation procedures was provided. Compensation payments are planned to begin in June.

Fee reductions were uniformly applied to affected residents for excess usage compared to the same month of the previous year, based on the 2023 January billing, in accordance with the Ulsan Metropolitan City Water Supply Ordinance.

Ulsan City explained, “To resolve residents’ inconveniences during the compensation process for the cloudy tap water incident, we simplified procedures for citizens’ convenience by directly compensating without following the usual procedures, although it was delayed.”

The cloudy water occurred on November 2 last year during valve adjustments of the emergency connection pipeline (D1,200㎜) to repair a leak in the Cheonsang system transmission pipe (D1,350㎜), causing fluctuations in pipeline pressure and flow.

For compensation, Ulsan City received damage reports for 40 days from November 7 to December 16 via the Waterworks Headquarters and local office websites, resulting in a total of 262 cases including fee reductions, with 228 cases confirmed as physical damages such as water tank cleaning.