Almost 50 thousand people lost their lives in 2 earthquakes that took place a few hours apart on February 6 in Kahramanmaraş. After the earthquake, hundreds of thousands of people began to live in tents, container cities and other cities. Today, the Istanbul Earthquake Mobilization Plan, organized by IMM and continuing for a few days, has come to an end.
Istanbul Earthquake Mobilization Plan shared: Earthquake Resistant City is being implemented!
İBB announced that it has implemented the Earthquake Resistant City application. At the conference held today, the topics of “Revisions foreseen to be made in matters related to planning”, “Revisions envisaged to be made in matters pertaining to risky building inspection”, “ISKI’s earthquake agenda”, “ISKI earthquake zone”, “Early warning and early intervention” were discussed. You can see the related images spread over the news below.
Ekrem İmamoğlu, Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Buğra Gökçe, Deputy Secretary General of IMM,
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Ekrem İmamoğlu, Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, said:
“As İBB, we are taking a strong initiative, we are changing the order. We are starting everything from scratch to make this ancient city a resilient city against earthquakes and disasters. February 6, 2023, unfortunately, is the beginning of the process where nothing will be the same for all of us. This earthquake set us all in motion as a nation. Thank you to all our nation.
As IMM, we took full action and rushed to the disaster area from the first day. We made an effort to deliver whatever we could to the whole region, not just Hatay, where AFAD matched us. I would like to state that as the Metropolitan Municipality, we will be in that region on behalf of the people of Istanbul until the wounds are fully healed, as sustainably as we can. I would like to state that nearly 2,000 of our personnel are still in Hatay.
We all know very clearly that we can no longer continue our lives as before. While tens of thousands of our lives are still being pulled from the rubble, maybe under the rubble, we cannot lead our normal lives. None of us has the right to that. We all have an extremely high need to rethink everything. We have an obligation to accept the earthquake as the primary problem of our country. Earthquake is a reality for this ancient land.
As Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, we take a strong initiative and change the order. We have to change the layout. Change takes courage. In order to be brave, first of all, it is necessary to get rid of being a part of a process that went wrong. IMM has been talking about this issue for years, since 1999. However, he could not take the necessary steps to change this order in a permanent and courageous way.
We are launching a high level mobilization for earthquake resistant Istanbul. This is quite possible. It has to be possible if we want to exist, to live. Earthquake is an inevitable reality for Istanbul and is a matter of survival in the real sense. We do not know the date and time.
No one should have any doubt that an earthquake will occur in this city. If we as a nation want to keep our generation alive in these ancient lands, we must create earthquake resistant settlements quickly. We want to work with all our people and achieve together.
We definitely need realistic strategies. We need the resource. We all know that the problem is huge. We need cooperation. Everyone needs to take action and be mobilized. Every sector needs to be mobilized and mobilized.
We need science. Science is our only light. As it was yesterday, when we continue on our way by ignoring what science says, we experience the pain we experience when we lose tens of thousands of people who hurt us and whose number we have difficulty in even declaring. It is not possible for us to continue on our way by ignoring it.
We will share reports from 7 scientific committees. We are starting everything from scratch to make this ancient city earthquake resistant. Our teams and scientists will continue their work without interruption. There is huge work to be done. We will reveal to all of you that there is a much bigger situation beyond the IMM with its financial aspect and legislation. Today we are making a new strong start.
Either we will act together or those who do not cooperate will leave their seats and return to their homes. With the Istanbul Strengthening system, we will strengthen at a cost. It will start accepting applications from mid-March. I want to announce this to our citizens here.
We received more than 110 thousand quick scan applications. We present the revision work of the zoning regulation to the Assembly. The budget should be revised for the disaster plan. No one can tolerate empty words. This issue is above the parties, I call on everyone. Let’s set up the earthquake council that covers the whole Marmara.”
Buğra Gökce, Deputy Secretary General of IMM, said:
“Our recent experiences have shown us that our legislation on disasters has many flaws. We saw the results of the deficiencies and abuses of our legislation in the last earthquake. In our opinion, there is a need for a separate law for Istanbul in this context. The processes regarding the preparation and approval of zoning plans need to be reconsidered by considering the public interest. The zoning plans signed before 1999 should be reviewed again. It is also important that some of the powers given to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization are given to IMM.
It should be recorded that the assembly areas are included in the zoning plans and that they cannot be changed. A special study by the Court of Accounts on zoning rents in the coming period may change many things. In our opinion, identity cards of all buildings should be prepared as earthquake safety certificates. All buildings with commercial facilities on the ground floor should be subject to a separate inspection. It is obligatory to give vocational qualification training to all intermediate staff who will take part in construction. The identification and implementation of risky structures should be reviewed.”
Ali Kurt, General Manager of Kiptaş said:
“We showed that social housing can be produced with fixed installments. In the process of renovating risky structures, we have to offer sustainable methods that give confidence to our citizens. We will also take an active role in empowerment.”
IMM Secretary General Can Akın Çağlar said:
“Loan opportunity will be offered for the renovation of low-income citizens’ homes and conversion of risky residences in Istanbul. We undertake to provide rent assistance, 3 times the limit set by the ministry, to our citizens living in 318 buildings, which we have determined in rapid scan tests throughout Istanbul to have near zero earthquake safety and to have the risk of spontaneous collapse.”
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