“Can’t even bathe the child”: Eight-hour water outage crisis in parts of Jeju City leaves about 4,700 households facing major disruption

[Financial News] A pump failure at a water source completely halted tap water supply for eight hours in central Jeju City, causing major inconvenience for residents of thousands of households.
According to the Jeju Province Waterworks and Sewerage Headquarters, the outage began around 3 p.m. on the 23rd, affecting about 4,700 water customers in Yongdam 1-dong, Yongdam 2-dong and Ora-dong in Jeju City. The outage occurred after a booster pump at Yongdam Reservoir broke down that morning, disrupting the water supply to the treatment plant.
About 4,700 meters have been counted as affected by the outage so far, but the actual number of affected households is believed to have been much higher because multi-unit housing, such as studio apartments and low-rise apartment buildings, often uses just one meter per building. After the unannounced outage, posts expressing frustration appeared on local online communities, including forums for mothers: “We’ve had no water for hours” and “There’s no water, so I can’t even bathe the child.”
Jeju Province dispatched emergency repair crews immediately after the outage and took steps to secure an emergency water supply, including operating groundwater wells at water treatment plants. It prioritized water-tanker support for large apartment complexes and sent emergency alert text messages to residents to inform them of the situation.
Emergency repairs were completed around 11 p.m. that night, about eight hours after the outage began. An official from the Waterworks and Sewerage Headquarters said, “Water service has resumed, but it may take longer for water pressure to fully recover in some areas, such as higher elevations.” The official urged residents, “If you turn on the tap immediately after repairs, the water may temporarily appear cloudy (turbid), so please make sure it runs clear before using it.”
[email protected] Park Ji-hyun Reporter