After Sewol, Jindo suffers from the passing of the buck

CHOI KYEONG-HO
The author is the head of the Gwangju bureau of the JoongAng Ilbo.

“When you go to Jindo, don’t even laugh,” people reminded themselves in and out of Jindo County, South Jeolla, at the time of the Sewol Ferry disaster. The tragedy marked its 10th anniversary on Tuesday. Jindo has been suffering a long trauma since April 16, 2014, when 304 passengers were killed in waters off the Maenggol Channel. Even now, visitors to Paengmok Harbor wipe away tears, recalling the tragedy 10 years ago.

The faces of the Jindo residents darken even at the mention of “the Sewol ferry.” Just because it is the site of the disaster, they have suffered for 10 years. The residents say, “After the sinking of the ferry, we remained quiet as if we were sinners until the ship was pulled up.”

The residents are hurt by the social atmosphere of rejecting fishery products from Jindo, such as crab and seaweed. The residents who quit their jobs shortly after the disaster and joined rescue and volunteer services have more fury than regret. A Chonnam National University Hospital survey shows that for three years after the disaster, two out of ten Jindo residents complained of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The residents are struggling as tourists stopped coming in after the disaster. Accommodations and restaurants across the national tourist destination were faced with financial difficulties. According to Jindo County, more than half of the 27 billion won ($19 million) in special loans offered to its fishermen and businessmen after the disaster were not repaid.

Since the disaster, Jindo has been pushing to build a national maritime safety center. It was part of the memorial project to help heal the wounds from the tragedy and minimize additional damage to the residents.

But the marine safety center originally scheduled to be completed in 2018 was built in November of last year and officially opened in January, just ahead of the 10th anniversary of the disaster. The late opening was the result of a delayed site purchase, design contract, and construction financing.

The 27 billion won in state funding was spent building the center with a total floor area of 4,462 square meters (48,029 square feet) across a basement and two floors. At the facility, which is just 600 meters (656 yards) away from Paengmok Harbor, visitors can experience more than ten kinds of safety programs. The number of visitors is rising as people’s interests in the experiences of a sinking ship and weather disasters grew along with interest in survival techniques.

The problem is the operation cost of the marine safety center. The facility opened on the condition that Jindo County pays 40 percent, or 1 billion won, of its annual operation cost of 2.5 billion won. The government contends that the local government must pay for the operating cost because the safety center is not a national project.

But Jindo County says it cannot afford 1 billion won every year because its financial independence rate is just 7 percent, the lowest in the country. The county and the residents are worried that a memorial project by nature runs the risk of deficit. I hope the memorial space for the tragedy will not be disturbed again due to the operating cost after it finally opened after all the twists and turns.