Seoul receives U.N. HABITAT award

Seoul City yesterday received the Habitat Scroll of Honor Special Citation, the most prestigious award in the field of human settlements development presented by U.N. HABITAT, for its three major achievements in the field.

Anna Tibaijuka, executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Program, visited the Seoul City Hall to recognize the achievements -- refurbishing Nanjido into an eco-friendly park, restoring Cheonggye Stream and implementing a long-term rental housing system, called "Shift."

The UN award was established in 1989 to recognize individuals or organizations that have significantly contributed to promoting socially and environmentally sustainable urban development and offering human settlements.

"I hope all such efforts and visions of Seoul, which is turning into an attractive city with the restoration and refurbishment works, will be spread to other cities in the world as their policy models," Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said during the award ceremony.



Nanjido in western Seoul was a landfill full of trash, which posed health threats to nearby residents. The city has transformed Nanjido into a public recreational and educational park during a project conducted between 1996 and 2002.

Cheonggye Stream, running through the heart of Seoul, was once covered with concrete to construct roads. As part of efforts to enhance the urban area both environmentally and economically -- and offer more public recreational space -- the city restored the stream between 2003 and 2005. It has now become a popular resting area and tourist attraction.

"Shift" was introduced in 2007 to provide affordable housing to low-income households at around 80 percent of the city`s average rental price for up to 20 years. The city expects the number of beneficiaries of the project to be 132,000 households by 2018.

The winner of the special award was announced on Oct. 5 last year during a ceremony marking the World Habitat Day.

The award ceremony was originally set to take place during the fifth World Urban Forum from March 22-26 in Rio de Janeiro. But Tibaijuka, who also serves as the undersecretary general of the United Nations, visited Seoul since Oh notified that he cannot attend the forum due to his tight schedule.

(sshluck@heraldm.com)





By Song Sang-ho