In a press statement issued on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the August 17, 1999 earthquake, Nazmi Şahin, General President of the Building Inspection and Earthquake Engineering Association, stated that the Marmara and Düzce earthquakes must not be forgotten and that it is not the earthquake but the lack of preparedness that kills.
‘‘With the great Marmara earthquake we experienced in August 1999 and the Düzce earthquake we experienced on November 12, 1999, our country endured one of the greatest disasters in its history. According to official records, 17,322 of our citizens lost their lives in the Marmara earthquake and 950 in the Düzce earthquake. 75,000 dwellings were severely damaged and 74,000 dwellings were moderately damaged. The Marmara earthquake painfully demonstrated how forgetful we are as a society regarding earthquakes and how unsuccessful we are at learning lessons from our own experiences and from those of others.
Over the last 58 years, 58,202 of our citizens have lost their lives in earthquakes in our country, 122,096 people have been injured, and approximately 411,465 buildings have collapsed or suffered severe damage. As a result, it can be said that on average 1,003 of our citizens die and 7,094 buildings collapse each year due to earthquakes.
Unfortunately, because of its location at the center of the Himalaya-Alpine earthquake belt, one of the most active seismic zones in the world, our country is among the nations most exposed to earthquake risk. 96% of our national territory lies within earthquake zones, and 98% of our population lives in those zones.
The 1999 Marmara earthquake was a major factor in revealing a certain truth. This painful event was a very important turning point in establishing that the buildings constructed in our country were not prepared for earthquakes. Classically, there are two approaches to the attitude to be adopted toward the problems created by urbanization. The first is to wait for problems to emerge and, when they do, to resort to measures aimed at remedying them; the second is, without waiting for problems to emerge, to implement ways and methods that prevent these problems from arising through advance planning. The second approach is the important one and the one that must be taken. For these reasons, the building inspection practice that first began with Decree Law No. 595 issued in April 2000 and continues today with the Building Inspection Law No. 4708 was launched as a pilot scheme in 19 provinces and was put into nationwide practice as of January 1, 2011. I attach great importance to the nationwide expansion of the building inspection system, and I believe that Turkey will now rest on more solid foundations.
It Is Not the Earthquake but the Lack of Preparedness That Kills!
It is not possible to eliminate the possibility of a building designed and constructed in accordance with the earthquake code and the zoning law being damaged by an earthquake. The purpose of building inspection is both to prevent damage that may occur in buildings due to earthquakes and other natural disasters and to minimize damage that cannot be avoided. The primary purpose of building inspection is to prevent structural damage from occurring. It is aimed at ensuring that buildings are constructed in accordance with the rules of science, craftsmanship and health, and that they are livable places in terms of safety and aesthetics. This purpose is clearly expressed in the Law and the Regulation as “to ensure building inspection … in order to safeguard the safety of life and property.” Ensuring the safety of life and property in a building is not limited solely to the inspection of the building’s design and construction. It also requires the inspection of the materials to be used in construction in terms of quality, soundness and suitability.
As a result of the examinations carried out in the earthquake zones following the August 17, 1999 Marmara earthquake, it was determined that the damage and defects occurring in buildings arose, in addition to ground problems, from various workmanship, material and structural system problems and technical defects. The greatest deficiency observed in buildings stems from conditions originating in the structural system. One of the greatest problems identified by the regulation concerning buildings to be constructed in disaster zones is that, in violation of the rules, the stirrups in load-bearing system elements were not placed at sufficient spacing—a major error. For example, as a result of workmanship errors, the failure to place stirrups at all at column-beam joints or to place them at sufficient spacing caused severe damage at these joints. In such buildings, because rigidity could not be achieved at the joints, a weak-column/strong-beam effect occurred, and collapse took place at these points, with all floors observed to have pancaked one upon another. As a result of these incorrect practices, losses of life and property occurred. It is extremely important that reinforcement be placed in conformity with engineering principles and that stirrups be closely spaced at connection points.
The right to housing, the right to a place to live, must not be perceived merely as a right to obtain a structure consisting of four walls and a roof under which, no matter how, a person can take shelter. It is the most natural right of our nation’s people to have a sound, high-quality, modern building that is resistant to and protected against natural disasters. The way to ensure such a right is by preventing the emergence of the adverse conditions originating from the building and by correcting those adverse conditions that are poor. Providing the environment of trust and quality that this right secures depends on an effective and high-quality building inspection system. An effective and high-quality building inspection system means the implementation of a planned process that begins at the design stage and continues until the completion of the building. Mandatory standard rules and regulations, including those for the materials used during construction, must be established and backed by sanctions; production and inspection must be professionalized; and impartial technical inspection must be carried out by modern, independent inspection institutions of a public nature.
Building inspection is a multidimensional system encompassing site selection, ground surveys, and the inspection of the design and the building. For this system to function, it is essential that all relevant parties fulfill their respective responsibilities.
The prevention—or reduction to the lowest possible level—of the losses of life and property experienced in the 1999 earthquake and in other earthquakes will be achieved through the joint efforts of designers, our contractors and our building inspection organizations. This should be seen not so much as a legal obligation as a humanitarian one.
For the safety of our lives, our property and our buildings, we must avoid unplanned and unauthorized construction and act in accordance with the earthquake code.
All members of our country, political parties, ministries, local governments, universities and non-governmental organizations: this issue belongs to all of us, to our country and to the world. We must become aware of the earthquake threat and together take the easy precautions that are not difficult and are possible to implement.
On this occasion, on the anniversary of August 17, I commemorate with mercy all of our citizens who lost their lives in the earthquake, and in the hope that such a disaster is never experienced again, I extend my condolences to their relatives and to our nation.
Respectfully,
YDDMD General President
Nazmi ŞAHİN
