Why the nation failed to handle disasters by three civil servants in charge of disaster relief

On July 16, mud covers a village in Beolbang-ri, Gamcheon-myeon in Yecheon-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, where a landside caused by a torrential downpour buried most of the village. Jo Tae-hyeong

Disaster prevention and safety: Min Ha-seung

Min Ha-seung (33, alias) is a civil servant who oversees disasters in a local government in the Yeongnam (Gyeongsang-do) region. He installs and manages facilities to prepare for heatwaves and cold fronts, and he inspects areas at risk of flooding when there are torrential downpours. He will end his career in public office, where he served for over two years, on July 28.

His colleagues envied him rather than try to dissuade him. “There were a lot of people who told me they’d soon follow,” said Min. He was convinced that he should quit when he caught himself falling asleep at the wheel more and more on his way home after emergency duty.

He didn’t start his public career with some grand sense of duty, but there were many times when he thought how rewarding it was to contribute to public interest--especially when he saw citizens cool down under the canopies he had personally installed. Min said, “That was the reason why I could hold on for two years.” But as time passed, Min was fatigued by the frequent all-night shifts, the complaints pouring in, and an excessive workload he could not handle. For some time now, his only goal was to “get away from the hellish department.”

Whenever a disaster occurs, such as torrential downpours or landslides, the local government’s capacity to respond always comes under scrutiny. This summer, when fourteen lives were lost after the Second Gungpyeong Underpass in Osong-eup, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do was flooded, people criticized asking, “Why couldn’t it be prevented?” Why do we repeatedly fail to properly respond to disasters? When the Kyunghyang Shinmun personally asked the civil servants overseeing disaster relief, they all complained about the lack of human resources and the ensuing burnout. On the field, civil servants had lost hope saying, “I want to escape as soon as I can before my life is further ruined.”

Disaster prevention and safety: Yu Jun-gi

“I don’t want to make a big issue out of it now,” answered Yu Jun-gi (40, alias) disheartened, when the Kyunghyang Shinmun asked him why he started working as a civil servant in charge of disaster prevention over the phone on July 27. He had barely managed to hold on to his life for four years--four years of not being able to sleep whenever it rained. He said, “Even if I work all night every other day, there is no visible output.” He said that the residents were always angry despite that the local government conducted construction work for improvements (to prevent floods) every year. As disasters grew more intense and occurred more frequently, oftentimes, the capacity of the local governments failed to catch up.

Yu argued that the environment did not allow for local governments to train disaster experts. Due to the high turnover, it was difficult for civil servants to gain experience. “It hasn’t been that long since they introduced civil servants for disaster prevention. They haven’t served many years and their positions are low. You need to work for at least ten years to become an expert. But they all go to other areas before that. So how can we train experts?”

Ten years ago in 2013, the government newly established civil servants for disaster prevention and safety and pledged to train them as key officials overseeing disaster relief. According to the 2022 Statistics on Local Government Civil Servants released by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, there were a total of 791 (including temporary officials) civil servants in charge of disaster prevention and safety. This was about 0.25% of the total government workforce, slightly over 300,000. In 2019, the government released the 4th Basic Plan for National Safety Management and promised to increase the number of civil servants for disaster prevention and safety to 1,640 by 2024, but it hasn’t even achieved half the target. This is because a very high percentage of civil servants who are hired quit.

General administrative position: Gweon Du-hyeon

Civil servants overseeing disasters argue that the biggest problem is a system in which they only have responsibilities without any authority. Gweon Du-hyeon (48, alias), a civil servant in a general administrative position at the disaster and safety countermeasure headquarters of a local district in Seoul explained the reason why working-level civil servants were bound to be passive. “To preemptively respond to disaster situations, it often requires subjective judgment. What happens if you take action to prevent a disaster, but the damage isn’t as bad as expected? What happens if some other inconvenience occurs? The citizens and agencies will all hold you responsible asking, ‘Why did you do as you pleased?’”

There are many voices that call for the government to properly punish and discipline civil servants who fail to respond to disasters, but you don’t hear voices urging the government to give them authority befitting their duties. The civil servants said they feared the approach of a bigger disaster in the future. Yu said, “We will face greater disasters and more frequently too. If I just remain still, it will only be a matter of time before my life collapses. I don’t think there is a need for me to do this work at the expense of ruining my life, is there?”