Parasite-Style Basement Apartments Will Be Banned in Seoul After Flood Deaths

South Korea’s capital metropolis will ban basement flats just like the one depicted within the Oscar-winning film Parasite after a minimum of 4 folks drowned of their houses throughout heavy rains earlier this week.

At least 11 folks in Seoul are dead following devastating floods, which occurred after the heaviest rains within the metropolis in 80 years. As of Wednesday, CNN reported, seven folks had been nonetheless lacking and 17 had been hospitalized; Axios reported that greater than 800 had been evacuated through the floods.

The BBC reported that three of the deaths occurred in a basement flat, a sort of dwelling often known as a “banjiha.” Two sisters of their 40s and a 13-year-old lady reportedly grew to become trapped through the floods. The three ladies had been discovered useless on Monday night, after reportedly making an attempt to name for assist, and another girl dwelling in a separate residence additionally drowned within the floods, authorities mentioned.

City officers mentioned Wednesday that they’d now not give out building permits for banjiha houses, and that homeowners would have 20 years to transform present flats into non-residential makes use of. Official statistics reported by the South China Morning Post present that as of 2020, 200,000 houses in Seoul—round 5% of whole houses—had been labeled as banjiha.

More than 20 inches of rain (52 centimeters) fell on parts of Seoul over the span of three days; elements of the town noticed a record-breaking 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) of rain per hour. Intense rainfall is a symptom of local weather change, since hotter air can maintain extra moisture. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change discovered final 12 months that that heavy rains have develop into round 30% extra widespread around the globe because the planet has heated up, and storms include 7% extra rain on common.

“We condemn the government’s negligence on those marginalized in housing for this tragedy,” Citizens Coalitions for Economic Justice, a civic rights group, said in a press release to the Korea Herald on Wednesday. “As rainfall becomes stronger and more frequent under the influence of climate change, it must embark on a fundamental change of its approach to semi-basement residents.”

The 2019 film Parasite, whose darkly comedic deal with wealth disparities in Seoul gained the 2020 Best Picture Oscar, follows the twisted relationship between the Kims, a poor household dwelling in a banjiha residence, and the Parks, a rich household dwelling in a mansion elsewhere within the metropolis. In one pivotal scene, the Kims rush again to their residence from the Parks’s mansion throughout a heavy rainstorm to search out it flooded with sewer water, they usually need to shelter with others from banjiha flats in a neighborhood gymnasium.

Banjiha flats, which had been initially designed as underground bunkers within the Seventies and later transformed to flats as demand for housing rose, have become a symbol for a lot of Koreans of the widening hole between wealthy and poor. Housing costs have skyrocketed in Seoul in recent times, and the shortage of inexpensive housing grew to become a key issue within the Korean presidential election earlier this 12 months.

Reacting to the ban, some banjiha residents told the Korea Herald that they “wouldn’t know where to go” if their housing possibility was taken away.

Sohn Mal-nyeon, 77, informed the paper that the floods prompted her banjiha dwelling of fifty years to flood with knee-deep, foul-smelling water. “I can’t seem to get the smell out,” she mentioned. “The power is back but my refrigerator broke down. All the food is spoiled. The floor and furniture are still wet. I don’t think I can use them again.

“Well, what do you expect people to do?” she mentioned of the proposed ban. “They live here because it’s cheaper, you know.”