ELAZIG GUNISIGI NEWSPAPER – May 2011
KÜTAHYA: STARTING THE DAY WITH AN EARTHQUAKE
It has been more than 10 days since the earthquake, but tremors continue in Simav, Kütahya. Hundreds of aftershocks have occurred so far, and many of these aftershocks have been nearly as strong as the initial earthquake itself.
Two of our citizens lost their lives, thousands of people are living in tents, and our young people are just days away from exams that will determine their futures, yet they are unable to attend school or tutoring centers. There is even talk about relocating the center of Simav.
Despite the seriousness of the situation in Kütahya, it is incredibly difficult to follow the developments here. Finding even a few pictures on television or a few lines in the newspapers is a rare occurrence because there is an election, and we are so indifferent that even the Kütahya Earthquake didn’t make it to the election promises, nor did we manage to include urban renewal and building inspections as key points.
True, every party has items in their program regarding construction and building issues, but it’s impossible to hear these voices in the campaign speeches. Unfortunately, it seems like we, as a nation, don’t have much of a demand for such issues.
Thankfully, there are professional organizations. Without the reports published by them, we would hardly know anything about the condition of the structures in Kütahya. It is clear that our main problems lie in two points: reinforcing the existing building stock against earthquakes and ensuring that new buildings are designed and constructed with sufficient earthquake resistance.
One of the most striking issues in the reports about the earthquake in Simav is the damage to buildings still under construction. These buildings were damaged before even being used, due to project and application errors. I want to make it clear that I am not surprised by this but rather aiming to draw attention to the situation. Many local municipalities, especially at the district level, do not have civil engineers. So, if these towns and districts are constructing buildings, who is monitoring the designs and construction?
Also, in many of Turkey's provincial municipalities, due to a lack of technical personnel, project and application inspections are insufficient. Take Elazığ, for example: Thousands of projects are submitted annually, and only a few of our colleagues in the municipality try to review them. Under such a workload, it seems very difficult for the technical staff to perform thorough inspections. Some may say, "But there's building supervision." The pilot implementation of building supervision has been expanded nationwide this year, but it appears that citizens are getting permits for almost all buildings, meaning the responsibility, at least for the next five years, still lies with municipalities.
Knowledge, experience, and inspections are needed not only for new building production but also for strengthening buildings with inadequate earthquake resistance. In Kütahya, some structures that were strengthened with retrofitting managed to survive the earthquake without damage, while others were still damaged. Strengthening, however, presents its own set of problems. Preparing retrofitting (reinforcement) projects for buildings is a special field, and firms or engineers who lack knowledge and experience and attempt to prepare projects based on guesswork often make significant errors during implementation. This approach fosters the misconception that strengthening is unnecessary. Retrofitting is a form of treatment for structures, and only proper treatments can yield proper results.
Another notable issue in the reports is the damage to our mosques. Unfortunately, these valuable structures, which suffer from a lack of care and inspection, get damaged even in minor earthquakes. Minarets built without any design or calculations collapse, damaging the mosque's main building and nearby structures. When we look at mosques that have stood for centuries, we can perhaps better understand where the problem lies.
You may recall that on March 11, 2011, a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake occurred in Japan. In such a large earthquake, the damage was not caused by the buildings but by the resulting tsunami. However, today in Simav, nearly a thousand buildings are no longer inhabitable. Moreover, this region and its surroundings have experienced five destructive earthquakes since the founding of the Republic. Yet, the outcome is so significant that words can hardly capture it.
Until a national earthquake strategy is established in our country, my final word will always be the same: "In societies with a high level of civilization, who set their sights on the future with goals and grand projects, the safest places during an earthquake are their own homes."