Sewage treatment plants have long been seen as undesirable facilities because of odor, noise and dust. To address this, moving the equipment underground and developing the surface as green space and urban infrastructure has drawn attention. Japan, Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong have pursued the approach aggressively. Finland's Viikinmäki plant, completed in 1994, turned its surface into a housing complex, and Japan's Tsuyuhashi Water Treatment Center in Nagoya, completed in 2019, became a park — both model cases.
Korea is also seeing a push to move sewage treatment plants underground. The country's first case was the Bakdal plant in Anyang. With bipartisan support, it was relocated 30 meters underground in 2018, and the surface was reborn as Anyang Saemul Park. Incheon also began work this year to move its Seunggi plant underground and create a citizens' park above it. Seoul has envisioned putting its Nanji, Seonam, Jungnang and Tancheon water recycling centers underground, and work is under way on the Jungnang and Seonam centers.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon recently proposed to the central government that the Tancheon Water Recycling Center be relocated underground and the existing site developed for housing. It is an alternative to the government's plan to build housing in Yongsan Park. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has begun a review. But the ruling party is raising objections, including the difficulty of securing a site for the center's relocation. Building housing on the Tancheon center site was also proposed in the past by former Democratic Party lawmakers Park Young-sun and Min Byung-doo. For the Democratic Party to now block the idea of a Seoul mayor from the opposition — isn't that a double standard?
