[2023 National Audit] 23 Deaths from Landslides in the Past 5 Years... "Prioritize Selection of Vulnerable Areas and Installation of Prevention Facilities"

In the past five years, 23 people have lost their lives nationwide due to landslides. In this regard, there are calls for urgent installation of preventive facilities, especially in landslide-prone areas.

According to data submitted by the Korea Forest Service to Assemblyman Eo Gi-gu (Democratic Party of Korea, Dangjin-si, Chungnam), a member of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, Food, and Maritime Affairs Committee, from 2019 to August this year, 23 people died nationwide due to landslides, and 2,312 hectares of forest were destroyed. A budget of 583.5 billion KRW was required to restore the landslide-affected areas.

Last summer, a landslide occurred on a hillside near Sillim Middle School in Gwanak-gu, Seoul due to record-breaking heavy rain. Officials at the site are clearing the fallen soil and trees to repair the road. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

As of this year, the number of landslide-prone areas nationwide is counted at 28,194 sites. This is an increase of 1,956 sites compared to 2019, with Gyeongsangbuk-do identified as the region with the highest concentration of landslide-prone areas. Additionally, Jeollabuk-do was confirmed as the region with the largest increase in landslide-prone areas, adding 508 sites.

As of this year, the landslide risk area covers 5,970,473 hectares. Among these, 1,303,136 hectares are concentrated in Gyeongbuk, and Gangwon-do has the highest proportion of Grade 1 landslide risk areas at 11.72% (143,249 hectares).

The Korea Forest Service classifies landslide risk into five levels, with Grade 1 being the areas with the highest landslide risk.

For landslide prevention, the installation of preventive facilities such as sabang dams is a crucial factor. However, to date, sabang dams have been installed in only 1,324 landslide-prone areas, with the proportion of vulnerable areas among the sabang dam installation sites being only 50.2%.

In particular, among the 346 sabang dams installed in Gangwon-do, only 78 are located in vulnerable areas, resulting in a sabang dam installation rate of just 22.5% within landslide-prone areas in Gangwon-do.

This highlights the urgent need to expand landslide damage prevention facilities such as sabang dams and prioritize their installation in vulnerable and high-risk landslide areas.

Assemblyman Eo Gi-gu stated, “As the number of landslide-prone areas increases, the risk of damage to forests and casualties due to landslides is also growing. It is necessary to take measures to ensure that landslide prevention facilities such as sabang dams are installed preferentially in landslide-prone areas.”