Scouting associations in the United Kingdom and the United States said on Saturday they would withdraw their groups from the international youth rally that began in South Korea on Tuesday due to excessive heat. The World Scout Jamboree, which is held once every four years, this year involves more than 150 countries with 43,000 young people mainly between the ages of 14 and 18, of which around 1,200 from Italy.
Due to temperatures around 35 °C and high humidity, from day one the organizers found themselves having to manage hundreds of people who complained of symptoms such as headaches, nausea, dizziness and exhaustion.
(Choe Young-soo/Yonhap via AP)
The scout camp was set up with hundreds of tents over an area of more than 8 square kilometers with few trees and shaded spaces in Saemangeum, Buan Region, a city southwest of Seoul. South Korea’s interior ministry on Wednesday declared its highest heat alert level for the first time in four years, with temperatures of 33 to 38 degrees Celsius across much of the country. On Thursday, Korean Interior Minister Lee Sang-min announced a series of measures to manage the possible effects of the heat on the health of Jamboree participants, which however apparently were not sufficient.
The UK group – which number 4,500 in all and is the largest – left the camp on Saturday morning to check into hotel rooms. The participants from the United States will instead move to the American military camp of Camp Humphreys, quite close to Saemangeum, on Saturday evening, after the activities scheduled for the day.
In recent days, the South Korean government had intervened to reassure, saying it had invested more than 4 million euros to ensure that the planned program for the Jamboree would not be affected by the inconvenience caused by the heat and in the hope that the event would not prove to be a failure for the reputation of the country, which is a candidate to host the 2030 Expo. In recent days it had deployed numerous air-conditioned coaches, new infirmaries and dozens more doctors and nurses than expected.
According to the schedule, the rally should have lasted until August 12, next Saturday: on Friday, the World Organization of the Scout Movement had asked South Korea to consider ending it earlier, but the South Korean government decided to proceed as planned. A meeting between the organizers is scheduled for Saturday to decide what to do from now on.