[Anchor]

Despite this intense heat, workers are fighting a battle under the blazing sun, clearing street garbage to ensure clean daily lives for the people.

Reporter Hong Seung-yeon met with sanitation workers at their job sites, where finding a proper place to rest is often difficult.

[Reporter]

Sanitation workers load garbage piled along the streets into a truck.

Before even 9:00 AM, the temperature has already soared to 35°C (95°F).

As they walk through alleys collecting trash, their entire bodies are quickly drenched in sweat.

[Yu Min-o / Sanitation Worker, Sejong City: Since the sun comes out from early dawn these days, it has been a constant battle against the heat starting then.]

I have been walking around various alleys and moving recyclables together for about 30 minutes now.

It is so hot that sweat is pouring from my entire body like rain.

Moving bulky waste is even more grueling.

[One, two, three! Watch your legs!]

Discarded furniture baked by the sunlight all day is hard to even touch.

The surface temperature well exceeds 48°C (118°F).

Because of sharp waste and the risk of falling objects, they are required to wear helmets, safety shoes, and even protective goggles, but the sweat makes even that difficult.

[Cho Heon-gwang / Sanitation Worker, Sejong City: We sweat so much that we have to constantly take them off and wipe, so not many people actually keep them on.]

With garbage pouring in continuously, work cannot be stopped or delayed.

This collection truck started picking up waste at 7:30 AM.

In just an hour and a half, the 3.5-ton truck was filled to the brim.

[Lee Jong-seob / Sanitation Worker, Sejong City: We cannot put it off. Stench and bugs develop right away, so we have to clear it out on the same day.]

There is no proper place to rest briefly during the grueling work.

While rest areas are provided, the nature of the job—which requires constantly moving across assigned zones—makes them hard to access.

Finding any visible shade to cool down for a moment is all they can do.

[Kim Gu-yeong / Sanitation Worker, Sejong City: Usually, there are small resting spots nearby. But because we keep moving around, not having a resting place is quite difficult.]

To protect the pleasant daily lives of citizens, sanitation workers continue their tasks quietly in the middle of the scorching streets today as well.

(Camera Reporter: Kim Min-chul | Video Editor: Lee Seung-yeol)