Why did public buildings that were supposed to be earthquake resistant collapse?

The Kahramanmaraş earthquake, where no action was taken despite experts’ warnings years ago to ‘take action’, caused extensive destruction in 10 provinces.

In this earthquake, in which new houses that sold for millions of liras and which could be described as zero houses were destroyed, even municipal buildings and hospitals, which should have been the most reliable structures, were destroyed, and roads were broken up. .

After the earthquake, the intensive care unit of the Iskenderun State Hospital was destroyed, while patients and hospital staff were left under the rubble. While the municipal service building was destroyed in Adıyaman, the historic castle in Antep and the historic Yeni Mosque in Malatya were partially destroyed.

We spoke to Nusret Suna, the second president of TMMOB’s Chamber of Civil Engineers (IMO), and Gencay Serter, Secretary General of TMMOB’s Chamber of Urban Planners, about why these facilities, where disaster survivors meet their needs as shelter and nutrition, especially health services, were destroyed and what are the deficiencies.

The Iskenderun State Hospital, which has been serving for 55 years, was also destroyed by the earthquake. (Caglar Oskay, Depo Photos)

‘THEY ARE NOT SUBJECT TO THE BUILDING AUDIT REGULATION’

Informing that public buildings are not subject to the Building Inspection Regulation, the second president of the TMMOB Chamber of Civil Engineers (IMO), Nusret Suna, told sozcu.com.tr: “Public buildings are inspected by the units of the institutions. For example, TOKİ is outside the Building Control Regulations. We have to review this situation, ”he said.

Suna said, “There are deficiencies in proper engineering and inspection services,” adding, “The Building Inspection Regulation has been promulgated, but it does not give the desired result. Is this regulation enough or not? Definitely needs to be reviewed and reviewed. Control is essential. A new regulation must also be made regarding the contracting law, ”he said.

‘THE LOCAL AND CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION IS NEGLIGENT’

Speaking to Sozcu.com.tr, the general secretary of the TMMOB Chamber of Urban Planners, Gencay Serter, stressed the need to evaluate public buildings by separating them from residential buildings.

Saying: “Risk analysis of public buildings had to be done in the past no matter what, and whether it needed to be demolished or strengthened,” Serter said, “At this point, the basic legal document is the Turkish Earthquake Regulations in Buildings. It is a fact that local and central administrations have the responsibility to renovate buildings in accordance with this regulation, and that there is negligence on this point”.

The Adıyaman Municipality building was also demolished.

‘REGULATION IS ENOUGH, IMPLEMENTATION IS NOT IMPLEMENTED’

The demolition of even year-old buildings in these earthquakes also raised the question of whether seismic regulation was sufficient.

According to Nusret Suna, the 2nd President of IMO, the current earthquake regulation is one of the few regulations in the world, but since it is not fully complied with, there is no point in having a good regulation.

“There is no deficiency in the regulation. It is a high-level regulation compared to many other countries,” Suna said, adding: “There is a similar regulation in the US and Japan. Why don’t we have big destructions there? What we lack is the non-compliance of the regulations.

Well, the earthquake that occurred was a very large earthquake. The structure would be damaged, but life safety would definitely be guaranteed, there would be no sudden collapse. The calculations made in the regulation indicate that buildings may suffer damage depending on the situation, but the safety of life will be 100 percent. That means there is negligence.”

Emphasis on vulnerability and neglect

Gencay Serter, General Secretary of the TMMOB Chamber of Urban Planners, made the following assessment regarding the regulations:

“According to the Turkey Building Earthquake Regulation, which was issued after 2001 and renewed in 2018, there are also buildings that are not demolished. This regulation was implemented after 1999 and is a regulation with high standards. However, having regulations alone is not enough.

Therefore, we saw that there is no defect in the regulation, and that the buildings were not demolished when they were built considering the land-building relationship as required by the regulation. However, the implementation and control of this regulation is the most important issue. It is possible to say that there are weaknesses and negligence at the point of implementation and inspection in the buildings that were built and demolished according to the new regulation after 2001.”

CAN’T A CITIZEN ALSO TRUST ZERO BUILDINGS?

The fact that even new buildings were destroyed caused concern in the form of ‘if we can’t trust zero buildings, what will we trust’.

Serter warns the public that construction and occupation permits for buildings must be reviewed and then the risk analysis of the structures must be carried out in absolute terms:

“The control of the occupancy licenses must be done in absolute conditions for the structures that were built after 2001 with a license. The fact that these buildings have occupancy and construction permits indicates that there is no legal problem and that the building was built in accordance with the new regulations.

However, here again, there should be no weakness in control and implementation. Because unfortunately, although their number is low compared to before 2001, it has been observed that demolitions have also occurred in new buildings. ”

HOW SHOULD CITIES BE REBUILT?

The earthquake caused great destruction in 10 provinces, but the destruction of the cities especially Hatay, Kahramanmaraş and Adıyaman along with their villages will require the reconstruction of these cities.

In making assessments on the rebuilding of these cities, Serter said: “First, the decision must be made as to which sections will be completely closed to settlement, the sections that have been destroyed or damaged, and the sections that will be renovated through of transformation and where the settlement will continue with rehabilitation and reinforcement.For this, urgent risk analyzes and the implementation of plans based on these analyzes are required.

Saying: “Building habitable settlements with high social standards, along with all these issues in terms of creating disaster-resilient cities in rebuilding cities, is another important issue,” Serter continued as follows:

“Many of the built-up and devastated areas appear to have low standards of social and technical infrastructure. In this context, it is important to achieve livable city standards after the disaster while cities recover.

I would like to underline again that the cities to be established with plans are as important as disaster resistant, as well as being habitable places with high standards of equipment.

Taking into account all these parameters, it can be decided to build on the site or move the construction to other regions. Of course, doing all this will require a significant amount of time, but it is not possible to say anything about this period as of now.”