170,000 households...21,630 KRW per household, total 3,677,100,000 KRW (≈ $2.76 million)
Paju City in Gyeonggi Province announced it has finalized a compensation plan for the regional water-supply outage that affected the Unjeong, Geumchon and Jori areas in November last year. The city said affected households will receive a lump-sum payment to cover bottled-water purchases without the need to submit receipts.
K-water (Korea Water Resources Corporation), the entity held responsible for the outage, agreed to provide a bottled-water allowance to every household in the affected area.
The company withdrew its initial plan to require receipts and accepted the Regional Water Outage Compensation Council’s demand to provide universal compensation to all households.
According to reports, after hearing residents describe the severe hardships they endured at the council’s fourth meeting in March, K-water decided the move was necessary to fulfill its obligations as a public institution.
Under the main compensation plan, K-water will pay 7,210 KRW per day (≈ $5.41) to each of 170,000 affected households for three days, totaling 21,630 KRW per household (≈ $16.22). The total compensation is estimated at about 3,677,100,000 KRW (≈ $2.76 million).
The key change is a significant simplification of the process. Rather than requiring individual households to submit receipts proving bottled-water purchases, K-water will make lump-sum payments to all affected households without documentary proof, responding to the council’s push to minimize the burden on residents.
Council members welcomed the decision. One member said, "It's fortunate the agency finally acknowledged the suffering of Paju residents and acted responsibly as a public institution." Another added, "The amount may be small compared with the actual harm residents experienced, but we applaud the agency's constructive stance."
Another council member argued that the response must also address the significant losses, pain and revenue declines experienced by small-business owners, urging K-water to proactively review and compensate those businesses as well.
Paju City plans to convene the council’s fifth meeting soon in line with K-water’s decision. At that meeting, the city will formally deliver the written decision on payments to council members and discuss the administrative steps required to ensure residents actually receive the compensation.
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