Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç Soyer met with the district mayors at the coordination meeting on “Disaster Preparedness and Urban Resilience”. Speaking at the meeting where the decision was made to establish search and rescue teams within the Izmir Disaster Risk Management Foundation and district municipalities, Soyer said, “If we work with this cooperation and enthusiasm, we can become the most earthquake resistant city in Turkey. Turkey needs to hear this, to see it," he said.
District mayors in Izmir Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç Soyercame together at the “Disaster Preparedness and Urban Resilience” coordination meeting hosted by . CHP İzmir Provincial Chairman Şenol Aslanoğlu also attended the meeting. The mayors, who met to prepare the city for possible disasters, evaluated disaster risk reduction projects. Mayor Soyer, while describing the work of the Metropolitan Municipality for urban improvements, also emphasized the measures to be taken by the district municipalities. In order to carry out the works more effectively and efficiently, it was decided to establish the İzmir Disaster Risk Management Foundation in the coming days.
All work will be gathered in one place
Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç SoyerHe said that everyone experienced great pain after the devastating earthquakes on February 6th. Expressing that on the one hand, they are trying to heal the wounds in the earthquake area, on the other hand, they have discussed possible earthquake scenarios for İzmir. Tunç Soyer“The coordination of the work each of us does in his own district is of great importance in order to make İzmir earthquake-resistant and to create an earthquake-resistant city. Of course, the work we all do has value. But it is important to bring all those works together in one pot.”
Infrastructure of assembly and shelter areas will be arranged
It also provides information about the accommodation and assembly areas in İzmir. Tunç Soyer, said: “We need to declare a total mobilization regarding shelter and assembly areas. There are 17 housing areas in 29 districts. It provides an opportunity with a total capacity of 20 thousand. We will store the containers we send to the earthquake zone here when they are no longer needed there. We will stock it in a way to make immediate assembly in the shelter areas. But no matter what, 20 thousand capacity is too small for İzmir. There are 2 assembly areas. This too is insufficient. Much more assembly space is needed in a city of 428 million. Within a month, we will be able to install electricity, clean water, sewage water and mobile charging stations in all of our shelters. We plan to prepare electricity, clean water and mobile charging station infrastructure for 4,5 thousand 2 points within a maximum of one year. It is important for each of you to identify the places in your own district that can be a shelter and gathering area.”
“We have to develop very rapid urban transformation formulas”
President Soyer stated that they have implemented Turkey's most comprehensive earthquake research and risk reduction projects in İzmir and reminded that they established the Egeşehir Laboratory in order to carry out the experiments and analyzes needed in earthquake studies at international standards. Soyer said, “Here, we have the power to make the most accurate analyzes regarding the building stock of İzmir, at the lowest cost. All these processes teach us the necessity of urban transformation. We have to develop very rapid urban transformation formulas. We don't have to work too fast on this. We allocated 10 percent of the municipal budget to these activities. We expect the same amount of contribution from the government," he said.
Dayanaç explained the work done
Banu Dayangaç, Head of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Earthquake Risk Management and Urban Improvement Department, shared the following information about the building inventory: Bayraklıcompleted in . It continues in Bornova. We want to do this work in the whole city center. There are approximately 900 thousand buildings throughout the province. There are 360 thousand buildings in the city center. Although 40 percent of the buildings seem to be in the city center, in fact, 70 percent of the population lives in the center. Therefore, the majority of the population that will be affected by the earthquake is in the city center. Most of the construction in İzmir was completed between 1970 and 2000. Therefore, it is important to know the building stock in our city.”
2 applications for building due diligence
Reminding that 2 thousand 100 applications have been made so far for the determination of the building status, Dayangaç said, “The apartment board decision taken unanimously during the application is required. Applications are made from different parts of Izmir. Some of our priorities in the review criteria are the number of floors, soil fluid, construction year; We will develop a ranking accordingly. We will obtain the project information of the buildings that we have grouped by taking into account the locations, from the district municipalities. We will pass this information on to the Chamber of Civil Engineers. Together with them, we will initiate a review of the structures' suitability for the project. We will have completed the preliminary evaluation with ultrasound scanning and x-ray scanning. With the information we have, we will automatically issue the building identity document.”
Volunteer teams will be formed
İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Fire Department Head İsmail Derse stated that it is vital for district municipalities to establish search and rescue teams and said: “These should be matched with fire departments as well as non-governmental organizations. Thus, we will be able to act together in a more organized way in case of a possible disaster. The first stage of what we will do in the support process from other cities in our city is very important. We want to establish search and rescue teams within 30 district municipalities. Trained human resources to work with the fire brigade are important in disasters. We aim to create disaster awareness, ensure that institutions are ready for disasters, and respond to disasters as soon as possible. To provide a volunteer team of 25 people in each district municipality, with a total of 750 people. Disaster risk analyzes of the districts will also be carried out.