Seoul to ban basement homes like those in Parasite film after storm deaths

SEOUL • After at least four people drowned in basement homes during the worst storm to lash Seoul in more than a century, South Korea's capital is planning to phase out such dwellings that came to symbolise yawning inequality in the Oscar-winning film Parasite.

Seoul is considering banning the construction of underground and semi-underground houses after coordination with the government, according to a statement on Wednesday.

Landlords will be given 10 to 20 years to remove such structures called "banjiha" homes from existing buildings. As at 2020, about 5 per cent or 200,000 homes in the city were basement or half-basement flats, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

The announcement came after the worst rainstorm in 115 years dumped 525mm of rain in parts of Seoul earlier this week and killed at least 11 people. That was more than the average rainfall for the whole month in South Korea's capital.

Among the dead were three family members - a woman in her 40s, her sister and the sibling's teenage daughter - who were trapped in a submerged semi-basement home in Sillim-dong, not far from the affluent Gangnam area.

Another woman, in her 50s, who lived in a similar residence also drowned, according to DongA Ilbo newspaper.

The central characters in Parasite, the Korean-language film that won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2020, live in a basement house and struggle to make ends meet.

The rain has also spurred Seoul to revive a 1.5 trillion won (S$1.6 billion) plan to improve drainage after floods exposed how even the affluent Gangnam district is vulnerable to climate change-driven extreme weather.

Experts say the city's capacity to drain water is far behind what is needed to handle a deluge like the one suffered this week. That has disastrous implications for low-lying areas like Gangnam, as these bouts of extreme weather are becoming increasingly common.

The downpour, which began on Monday and shifted southwards on Wednesday, knocked out power, caused landslides and flooded roads and subways. Monetary estimates of the damage are still being compiled.

Following the downpour, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced on Wednesday that the city will spend 1.5 trillion won in the next decade to build six massive underground tunnels to store and release rainwater to prevent flooding.

"The damage from this record rainfall shows that there are limits with short-term water control measures when unusual weather conditions due to global warming have become common," Mr Oh said, vowing to establish a city-wide system capable of handling 100mm of rainfall an hour from the current 95mm.

The frequency of heavy rain in Seoul has increased by 27 per cent since the 2000s, according to a 2021 report by the Seoul Institute.

BLOOMBERG, REUTERS