Suwon Special City Wins Grand Prize at Ministry of Interior and Safety's '2023 Proactive Administration Excellence Competition'

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-sung] Suwon Special City won the grand prize (presidential award) at the '2023 Proactive Administration Excellence Competition' hosted by the Ministry of Interior and Safety, achieving a remarkable victory following the excellence award at the '2023 Gyeonggi Province Proactive Administration Excellence Competition' held under Gyeonggi Province's auspices in September.

On the 8th, the city won the grand prize at the 'Proactive Administration Excellence Competition' held at the Government Complex in Sejong with the submission titled 'Residents suffering from chronic odors for 40 years: overcoming long-standing conflicts through collaboration between citizens, government, and business.'

In this competition, Suwon Special City advanced to the finals through preliminary rounds 1 and 2, and received high evaluations from the Citizens' Judging Panel's face-to-face presentations and expert review, as well as online public voting, earning the honor of the award.

'Residents suffering from chronic odors for 40 years: overcoming long-standing conflicts through collaboration between citizens, government, and business' is a case demonstrating how the private sector, government, and enterprise cooperated to improve facilities addressing the odor problem at Dongwon F&B; factory located in Jeongja-dong, Suwon, which had persisted for 40 years.

The Dongwon F&B; wastewater treatment facility, established in 1968, was originally built in a sparsely populated area. However, as urbanization progressed, conflicts intensified with resident complaints from the 2000s onward. Since 2016, 1,400 odor-related complaints have been filed. Dongwon F&B; installed and operated a fixed-type automatic odor collection device in 2019, but the odor problem persisted.

Rather than taking a conventional approach to complaint processing, the city chose the path of proactive administration. The city placed universal values for environmental problem-solving on 'sustainability,' raising the company's awareness of social responsibility, while securing citizens' understanding through sufficient explanation and making active efforts to resolve the issue.

In 2020, it was designated and announced as an 'odor emission facility,' and from 2021, unmanned odor measurement devices were installed and operated. During this period, odor pollution levels (exceeding standards 9 times) were tested 40 times, and administrative measures were imposed 6 times, including 3 improvement recommendations, 1 order for corrective measures, and 2 improvement orders. The city also filed one complaint regarding non-compliance with odor reduction measures, strongly urging improvements.

To share and communicate odor occurrence status with citizens on a continuous basis, five public hearings for local residents were held from 2021 to 2022 following the facility designation.

In May 2021, Dongwon F&B; began odor improvement construction at its wastewater treatment facility, which was completed by the end of March this year. The aging external wastewater treatment facilities of the existing treatment plant were underground and sealed, blocking odors. Additionally, the city introduced a construction method using ozone water, whose powerful oxidizing power destroys the molecular structure of residual odor substances, preventing odors from leaking outside. Dongwon F&B; bore the entire construction cost of 6.7 billion won.

As a result, the city fostered consensus between citizens and the company, achieving outcomes including the spread of a citizen participation culture, enhanced tangible perception of administrative services, and improvements in residential environments.

Meanwhile, with this award, Suwon Special City has won the proactive administration excellence competition for four consecutive years.

At the Proactive Administration Excellence Competition hosted by Gyeonggi Province, the city has previously won the excellence award in 2023, the highest excellence and encouragement awards in 2022, and the excellence and encouragement awards in 2021.

At the Proactive Administration Excellence Competition hosted by the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the city won the Prime Minister's Award in 2021, the Personnel Authority Director's Award in 2020, the Presidential Award, and the Ministry of Interior and Safety Minister's Award.

Additionally, in 2022, the city was selected as a superior institution in the Ministry of Interior and Safety's comprehensive evaluation of local governments' proactive administration, and was recognized as an excellent institution in the Citizen Ombudsman Commission's Proactive Administration Public Request Program by the Citizen Ombudsman Commission.