In a class-action lawsuit seeking damages worth 2.5 billion KRW filed by about 8,600 residents of Seo-gu, Incheon, who were affected by the 2019 "red tap water (discolored water)" incident, all claims against the Incheon city government were dismissed.
According to Incheon city on the 7th, out of six damage claims filed by Seo-gu residents between 2019 and 2020, five cases ended with victories for Incheon city, and with the plaintiff in the most recent case withdrawing their appeal, all six cases have been finalized with losses for the residents.
Previously, the residents filed damage claims demanding compensation of 200,000 to 500,000 KRW per person, arguing that the water supplied violated tap water quality standards due to the city's water system switch, and that they suffered severe mental distress from the prolonged discolored water incident.
However, the Supreme Court ruled to dismiss the case without further review. This is a system in appellate courts, excluding criminal cases, where if there is no specific reason such as illegality in the original judgment, no additional trial is held and the appeal is dismissed.
The Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the second trial court, stating, "The water system switch to prevent water outages has great public interest and is unavoidable, and the risk of discolored water incidents inevitably exists due to the nature of water facilities, so it must be tolerated to some extent."
Furthermore, the court found that the officials' response measures did not constitute unlawful acts, intentional misconduct, or negligence in their official duties under civil law. It also considered that it is practically impossible to always maintain and manage water facilities, such as aging water pipes, in optimal condition.
The Incheon red tap water incident occurred on May 30, 2019, during the "water system switch" process supplying water from the Susang Water Purification Plant in Namdong-gu to the Gongchon Water Purification Plant supply area in Seo-gu. The incident happened when the water pressure in the existing pipeline was excessively increased, causing sediment inside the water pipes to dislodge. At that time, the city estimated that 261,000 households and 635,000 people in the Gongchon Water Purification Plant's supply area were affected by the discolored water.
Subsequently, four city officials were prosecuted for manipulating the turbidity meter at the water purification plant to cover up the incident. On December last year, one official was sentenced to eight months in prison with a one-year probation, two officials received suspended sentences of four to six months, and one was acquitted.
Park Jeong-nam, head of the Incheon City Waterworks Headquarters, said, "I do not believe the court ruling is a pardon for the inconvenience caused to citizens by the water quality incident," adding, "We will do our utmost to prevent such incidents from recurring and to supply safe and clean tap water."
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