Ignorant governance is taking lives not the earthquake!

İzmir, an Aegean city in Turkey,  has been shaken by an earthquake with a magnitude of between 6.6 (AFAD) and 6.9 (Kandilli observatory).
The earthquake which occured on Saturday at 14.51 led to the collapse of 17 buildings, and the death of over 90 people and injured a further 994. There are thought to be further people still awaiting to be rescued under the rubble. Efforts to rescue those left under the collapsed buildings are ongoing.

We send our condolences to those living in the city of Izmir and the rest of the country. We wish a speedy recovery to all those injured as a result of the earthquake.

There have been 8 earthquakes measuring over 6 in İzmir in the past century. According to officials, the last earthquake to measure 6.9 was recorded in 1688.

Aside from the rescue teams in Izmir, rescue teams across the country and Soma coal miners have travelled to the city to support the rescue efforts following the large eathquake.

If only they had acted before the earthquake!

During the last few years we have seen many other earthquakes in the Aegean region with a magnitude of  4-6. The region has seen so many earthquakes in recent years that it is referred to by some scientists as ‘earthquake storms’.

Taking these developments into consideration,  scientists had warned the government that an earthquake with a magnitude of 7 was very likely to hit the region because there have been massive tensions building up in the plates as a result of the wave of ‘earthquake storms’. In fact, in recent months scientists pinpointed the likely location of the earthquake on the map. Hence this earthquake didn’t come as a surprise to the scientists. However, the government and the media bosses have adopted the philosophy of “Until it snows in İstanbul the winter has not started in Turkey”, and were surprised by an earthquake of this force!

Despite their ignorance and inaction prior to the earthquake, government officials were very quick to travel to the area following the disaster on Saturday. The energy commissioner, law commissioner and family commissioner were some of the officials that travelled to the region amongst many more.

Seing these officials at the site of the rescue efforts, we can not help but think that, “If only they had done a better job to prevent the deaths before the earthquake there would not have been a need for such large scale rescue operations”.

Buildings are taking lives not the Earthquake!

Turkey is situated in a region with high risks of Earthquakes. Therefore, each year it records many earthquakes which measure at different magnitudes. Our scientists are knowledgable and provide good advice to central and local governments around earthquake prevention. However, it is arguable how much of the advice provided by seismologists is taken on board by the government and officials.

Amongst these arguments, everyone except the group of people that believe “the earthquake is a punishment from Allah” are in consensus that it is not the earthquake which is claiming lives but rather buildings which are not compliant with earthquake regulations. This evaluation also by and large provides an answer to the question of , “how can we be more prepared against earthquakes?”.
As these buildings are man made structures, they are the responsibility of the governments. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that they are constructed in safe way and earthquake friendly.

Hence, we can change the slogan slightly and say that, “The governments which are ill prepared for earthquakes are taking lives”, This provides a better reflection of the truth. As a matter of fact, the earthquake effected the whole of Izmir but only 17 buildings were turned into rubble claiming the lives of their inhabitants. Maybe hundreds of other buildings have been damaged by the earthquake and hundreds did not have any damage!

Thus, if these 17 buildings had been constructed appropriately and the government refused to grant permission to buildings with insecure structures close to lakes, these human catastrophes could have been avoided and we would have remembered this simply as a natural occurance!

We will continue to seek an answer to the question ‘How prepared are we for earthquakes?’

The earthquake in Izmir is bound to bring the question of “how prepared are we for earthquakes?” back onto the government’s agenda.

In fact, when we talk about preparedness for eathquakes, despite it being over 21 years since the biggest earthquake in the Marmara region, no one can whole confidently say that we are better prepared for an earthquake in Istanbul. We are no more prepared in terms of building regulations, building stock, or the services we need to provide for those impacted by earthquakes, than we were 21 years ago. 

Today we must find out where and how the funds collected under the so-called  ‘earthquake tax’, which now equates to 144 million TL, have been spent? We also need the government to reinstate its project of urban transformation to identify and replace those buildings which are unsafe.

Earthquakes are a natural cause, however it is the governments duty to prevent this natural disaster from turning into a human catastrophe through better management and increased sensitivity to the issue of earthquake prevention. This is a lesson which must not be forgotten!