ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP
Seoul residents clean a basement apartment after floods on August 11, 2022.
SOUTH KOREA – The “banjiha,” those tiny basement dwellings common in the city of Seoul, are about to disappear. The authorities have made the decision this tuesday, 9.8 to ban these dangerous and precarious dwellings after three people drowned in one of them.
The torrential rains that fell on South Korea trapped two sisters in their 40s and a 13-year-old child, identified as the daughter of one of them. All three of them died on Monday, August 8, during the heaviest downpour Seoul has seen in 115 years.
These apartments were made famous by Bong Joon-ho’s film Parasite, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019 and the Oscar for Best Picture in 2020. In the feature film, the main characters are all poor and unemployed family living in one of these apartments.
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Housing symbols of inequality in South Korea
Often occupied by a destitute population, they symbolize the growing inequality in South Korea. These record rains proved that they also put tenants at risk.
The victims, who lived in the Gwanak neighborhood, called for help and tried to flee, “but the water filled the room within seconds,” a neighbor told Yonhap News Agency. Their lifeless bodies were found after firefighters emptied the apartment.
A family of three, including a 13-year-old girl, drowned in their basement home as floods hit Seoul. H… https://t.co/s0bNEWbkfH
— The New York Times (@nytimes)
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South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol visited the scene of the tragedy and apologized to residents there. Effective immediately, the city of Seoul will no longer issue building permits for these apartments, and the existing apartments will be remodeled for other functions. with time.
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Impressive images of this storm are circulating on social networks and show flooded streets and subway stations. The rains led to power outages and the evacuation of many residents.
Eleven people were killed during the torrential rains and eight others are missing.
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