Jamboree in shambles amid heat, typhoon and poor planning [REWIND 2023]

Scouts attending the 25th World Scout Jamboree take shelter in the shade on Aug. 4, when the mercury at the event site hit 34 degrees Celsius. [NEWS1]

What was meant to be a joyful, 12-day long celebration of the World Scouting Movement in early August turned into a nightmare after poor planning left the campsite of the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Saemangeum a baking, puddle-ridden field wholly unsuited for hosting 43,000 scouts and volunteers from 158 countries.

Reports of participants being taken ill in heat exceeding 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) even before the Aug. 2 opening ceremony cast a harsh spotlight on local officials' failure to make adequate preparations for torrid weather at the campsite, which was built atop a reclaimed tidal flat that the organizing committee had previously promised to turn into a “lush forest.”

As hundreds of scouts fell ill from heat exposure and insect bites, the central government hurriedly provided air-conditioned buses and vehicles to Jamboree participants.

But the government eventually decided to evacuate the campsite entirely on Aug. 8 as Typhoon Khanun began its approach toward the peninsula, and scouts dispersed across Korea to participate in cultural and tourist programs that had been prepared for them by local authorities.

A JoongAng Ilbo investigation later revealed that Buan County and North Jeolla officials undertook over 90 trips abroad, purportedly to prepare for the Jamboree, including visits to countries that had never hosted the event.

The Jamboree planning fiasco also cast a harsh spotlight on North Jeolla’s process for awarding contracts to companies to provide services to the Jamboree, with 15 out of 256 companies given deadlines past the Jamboree’s official opening date.