Earthquake Resistant City Manisa Workshop was held in partnership with Manisa Metropolitan Municipality and Manisa Celal Bayar University (MCBÜ) on the anniversary of the February 6 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, which shook the whole of Turkey deeply. Manisa Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cengiz Ergün, Manisa Celal Bayar University Rector Prof. attended the workshop. Dr. Rana Kibar, Deputy Governor Mustafa Yıldız, MHP Provincial Deputy Chairman Mehmet Baskak, Yunusemre MHP District Chairman Bülent Kovancılar, Manisa Metropolitan Municipality Department Heads and guests attended.
“WE MUST TAKE PRECAUTIONS TO AVOID SUCH DISASTER AGAIN”
The opening speech of the program, which started after a moment of silence and the reading of the National Anthem, was made by Manisa Celal Bayar University Rector Prof. Dr. Rana Kibar performed it. In his speech, Rector Kibar reminded that 6 year has passed since the February 1 earthquake and said that they have been in the region since the first day of the earthquake and helped with the work. Kibar said, “In this workshop we organized as Manisa Celal Bayar University, we will discuss what we should do not only in a structural sense, but also in terms of public health and, as we mentioned, the difficulties that will occur in the country's economy in such a process. "I believe that this workshop will provide important results and important contributions to taking precautions to prevent such disasters from occurring again by discussing the results we obtained from the February 6 earthquake and taking precautions within these frameworks," he said.
“WE DO THE EARTHQUAKE RESISTANCE TEST OF 600 THOUSAND BUILDINGS FOR FREE”
MCBU Rector Prof. Dr. Following Kibar's speech, Manisa Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cengiz Ergün also gave a speech at the workshop. President Ergün said that it is the anniversary of the disaster of the century, which left our country in deep sorrow and caused serious destruction in 11 provinces, where thousands of citizens were lost. Commemorating the lives lost in the February 6 earthquakes with mercy, Mayor Ergün said, “Of course, we are taking important steps to heal the wounds of the February 6 earthquake in state-nation cooperation and get back on our feet. Another important step we need to take is to make our homes, living spaces, in short, our cities, resistant to earthquakes. It is obvious that we all have important duties at this point. In this important workshop we held today, we will talk about how we can increase our preparations against a possible earthquake in Manisa. We have to make the buildings in our city earthquake-resistant, take the necessary precautions to reduce the risk of disasters, and do the necessary work to ensure the safety of our citizens in case of disaster. In this context, we have implemented a very important and one of the first studies with Celal Bayar University. We conduct earthquake resistance tests of 600 thousand independent buildings throughout Manisa free of charge. To date, risk analysis has been completed in more than 103 thousand independent departments in our Yunusemre and Şehzadeler districts. In the study for which we, as the Metropolitan Municipality, allocated a budget of over 30 million TL, a team of 40 people is actively working in the field, while a team of 10 academicians is involved in reporting the risk situations of the buildings. On behalf of myself and my fellow citizens, I would like to thank our Rector and the valuable academicians of the Civil Engineering Department for this important cooperation. In addition, we are paving the way for more orderly and solid structures as a result of the new development plans being prepared after 35 years. "We are working in cooperation with our district municipalities and our Provincial Directorate of Environment and Urbanization to prevent the construction of unhealthy and unstable structures," he said.
“WE WILL TALK ABOUT HOW WE CAN INCREASE SOLUTION SUGGESTIONS AGAINST EARTHQUAKE”
Mayor Ergün stated that the workshop will discuss topics on how to increase the precautions against earthquakes and said, “Today, we came together here to address the reality of earthquakes and to produce solutions on earthquake precautions and how we can increase our preparations against a possible earthquake. Science will speak, and depending on the outcome of this conversation, we, as local administrators and all public institutions, will take the necessary measures. It is a fact that our country is in an earthquake zone. It is the duty of every citizen to take this fact into consideration and take precautions accordingly. I believe that we should see it as an important duty to carry out all the necessary work, precautions, strengthening, urban transformations and building earthquake-resistant structures with the understanding that precaution is on us, discretion is from God. "With these feelings and thoughts, I hope that our workshop will be productive and that it will contribute to making Manisa safer against natural disasters such as earthquakes," he said.
A PLAQUE WAS PRESENTED TO CENGİZ ERGÜN
After his speech at the workshop, Manisa Celal Bayar University Rector Prof. Dr. Rana Kibar presented a plaque to Manisa Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cengiz Ergün, saying, "I would like to thank you very much for your support to both our workshop, our university and the work done by our university in many areas."
WORKSHOP CONTINUED WITH PRESENTATIONS
Following the opening speeches and plaque presentations of the Earthquake Resistant City Manisa Workshop, the workshop continued with presentations. Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Engineering Department of Geophysical Engineering Lecturer Prof. Dr. 'The Importance of Geophysical and Seismological Research' by Orhan Dede Polat, Manisa Celal Bayar University Engineering Faculty Civil Engineering Department Head Prof. Dr. A presentation on Manisa's building stock was made by Ali Demir. In the second part of the workshop, in the panel titled Manisa's Current Situation in Terms of Earthquake Risk and Solution Suggestions, Manisa Metropolitan Municipality Fire Department Head Gürhan İnal and Head of the Planning and Urbanization Department Ünsel Gökçe made a presentation and informed the participants of the workshop.
