Complaints regarding drainage facilities such as storm drains and culverts have exceeded 20,000 nationwide in the past 18 months due to repeated sudden downpours and localized heavy rains.

Monthly trend of drainage facility complaints over the past 18 months (Jan '24 - Jun '25)

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced on the 17th that it had analyzed 20,604 complaints related to drainage facilities collected through the Civil Complaint Information Analysis System from January 2024 to June 2025.

The analysis revealed that complaints were mainly concentrated between May and July, when heavy rainfall is frequent, accounting for 40.9% of all complaints in 2024. Notably, June 2025 saw the highest monthly number of complaints within the analysis period.

The monthly average of drainage facility complaints increased significantly from 978 last year to 1,479 this year. The number of complaints in the first half of 2025 alone was approximately 1.6 times higher than in the same period last year.

In terms of regions, the Seoul metropolitan area, including Gyeonggi and Incheon, accounted for over half of all complaints. Seoul alone received 3,809 complaints in the first half of this year, already surpassing the total number of complaints for the entire previous year (3,284 cases).

An analysis of the relative complaint incidence rate by region indicated a high level of complaints in Busan, Gwangju, and Daejeon. These figures, considering population and area, suggest the influence of local drainage infrastructure or geographical factors.

The majority of complaint types were reports requesting maintenance due to poor drainage or concerns of flooding on roads and sidewalks. Many cases included not only inconvenience such as "Water has accumulated on the road and sidewalk, making it impassable" and "Rainwater has backed up into the building," but also concerns for citizen safety.

In addition, requests for preemptive maintenance in chronically flooded areas, demands for sediment removal and measures to prevent waste inflow, requests for drainage facility construction, and post-construction follow-up complaints were also continuously received.

In particular, a considerable number of complaints requested local governments to crack down on actions such as discarding cigarette butts or food waste into drainage facilities and unauthorized discharge of construction soil.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission plans to share these analysis results with relevant ministries such as the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the Ministry of Environment, as well as with local governments nationwide, to reflect them in drainage facility maintenance and flood prevention policy development. Commissioner Yoo Chul-hwan stated, "Complaints related to drainage facilities are important signals that threaten public safety beyond mere inconvenience," and added, "We will listen to the voices of the public to prevent recurring damages in advance."

The complaint statistics and analysis data are available for public access on the 'Civil Complaint Big Data at a Glance' website.