I’ve written many articles about earthquakes, including my first official blog post. However, last year, I wrote three articles, chronologically following the 6 February 2023, earthquake, one of the largest in the history of the Republic. If you haven’t read these articles, I recommend you do:
This time, the earthquake hit my father’s homeland hard (12 February 2023)
https://www.serhansuzer.com/tr/deprem-bu-kez-baba-yurdunu-fena-vurdu
Buildings to protect people (19 February 2023)
https://www.serhansuzer.com/tr/binalarin-insanlari-korumak-icin-yapilmasi
The antiheroes of disaster response in Turkey (12 March 2023)
https://www.serhansuzer.com/tr/turkiyede-afetle-mucadelenin-anti-kahramanlari
In previous articles whose links I shared above, I highlighted the proactive measures to be taken. Now, while recalling these measures, let’s examine what has and hasn’t been done since 6 February of last year. I continue by asking questions about the work that needs to be done:
Before I move on to the questions, you can see the pre- and post-earthquake photos of Antakya above, which clearly show the tragic toll of the earthquake. Unfortunately, looking at these photos, you can imagine that the unofficial death toll could be much higher.
Before I move on to the questions, you can see the pre- and post-earthquake photos of Antakya above, which clearly show the tragic toll of the earthquake. Unfortunately, looking at these photos, you can imagine that the unofficial death toll could be much higher.
My Questions
1) Has the zoning amnesty been lifted? (See: The zoning amnesty balance sheets for the 10 earthquake-hit provinces have been released: https://www.sozcu.com.tr/2023/ekonomi/depremin-vurdugu-10-ildeki-imar-affi-bilancosu-ortaya-cikti-7588286/ )
2) Has a mechanism been established to thoroughly inspect all buildings? Have buildings at high risk of collapse in the earthquake been sealed, evacuated, and demolished (including dilapidated buildings that were renovated)?
3) Have standards been implemented without compromise in the construction of new buildings?
4) Has a minimum resistance standard been established for each building against all types of disasters (floods, landslides, etc., in addition to earthquakes)?
Are modern systems being utilized?
5) Have building permits begun to be issued based on the ground on which buildings are built? For example, has it been planned that buildings in earthquake zones should be built with systems designed to absorb earthquake shaking, as in Japan?
6) Instead of buildings costing lives, buildings should be built to protect people from earthquakes, floods, forest fires, landslides, and all other disasters. Have new buildings begun to be constructed with this understanding, with great care, a transparent, and established system, using the latest technology?
7) Has building in areas with significant risks been banned (e.g., not building on fault lines or in streambeds)?
8) If you are going to build a building, I am talking about requiring all construction companies to work with accredited geological survey companies to first determine whether the ground is suitable and, if so, how to build on it. Has the opportunity been opened for professional geological survey companies to provide services to all construction companies?
9) Not everyone will be able to build because there’s a lot of money involved. There will always be land developers, but they will have to work with licensed, expert construction companies. Active managers of construction companies must be civil engineers. Have companies been subject to stringent criteria for their construction licenses?
Daunting Penalties Must Be Imposed
10) The vast majority of those who practiced this profession in the past and caused building collapses are walking free. A few contractors have been arrested, but as in the past, they will eventually be released. The way to ensure that new construction workers are far superior and more ethical than those facing imprisonment is to confront the past so that they won’t even consider relaxing standards. Has everyone who caused buildings to collapse and tens of thousands of people lost their lives been subject to the harshest penalties?
11) Every construction company needs to be approved by expert building inspectors, who are unknown to them and act as third parties. This team of building inspectors should also consist of civil engineers. Building inspectors should be randomly selected from a computer system and assigned to this task. Contractors and building inspectors should not interact with each other. Unfortunately, building inspectors have been demoralized in the past. In fact, at one point, building inspectors were paid by the contractors who built the building. There have been numerous outrageous incidents in the past, such as contractors going to great lengths to get their buildings approved, people threatening building inspectors, and so on. Has a building inspector system been established, as it should be, so that no contractor can manipulate it?
Ethical Values and Competence
12) The education system must prioritize raising generations with high ethical values and a strong moral foundation, empathy, helpfulness, high self-confidence, and a knowledge of life. Furthermore, our education system must cultivate high-level engineers. The 4Es are taught in the introductory civil engineering course: Safety, Economy, Ergonomics, and Aesthetics. The first two principles should never be replaced. In other words, economy should not take precedence over safety. This is where the moral and ethical values I mentioned earlier come into play. Every stage of this work must be made more difficult from now on. If a doctor performs a surgery incorrectly, one person loses their life, but if a civil engineer performs their job incorrectly, it can lead to the loss of hundreds of lives. Course hours for fundamental courses such as statics, dynamics, strength, structural statics, reinforced concrete, steel structures, soil mechanics, and structural dynamics should be increased, and graduating simply by skipping these courses is impossible. All students must graduate with a thorough understanding and practical knowledge of all aspects of civil engineering and other engineering disciplines. Have the necessary fundamental changes been made in both basic and vocational education?
13) Have earthquake preparations begun in earthquake-prone areas? What has been done to prepare for the Istanbul and Marmara Earthquakes, which are expected to cause even greater casualties than the 6 February 2023 Earthquake?
14) Has a nationwide moratorium been declared regarding earthquakes? For example, revising all 21 million buildings constructed in Turkey (to diagnose and, if necessary, demolish them) and city plans one by one would fundamentally solve the earthquake problem. Has such a mobilization been declared?
In short, after the disaster that claimed the lives of more than 50,000 citizens on 6 February of last year, according to official figures, and perhaps the greatest disaster in the history of the Republic, have we learned the necessary lessons and begun to take the necessary action? Everyone who reads this article should try to answer these questions with their conscience.
Tag: memoir
