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The magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck the eastern province of Van, killing more than 1,000 people and destroying dozens of buildings, has shown that the implementation of a compulsory state earthquake insurance program is particularly low in the country’s eastern and southeastern regions.
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Following the Marmara earthquake of Aug. 17, 1999, in which thousands lost their lives and significant amounts of property were damaged, a compulsory state earthquake insurance system was set up by the Turkish Compulsory Insurance Pool (DASK) in case of building collapses.
According to DASK’s 2011 reports, 25 percent of the total number of buildings are insured under compulsory state insurance. But the insurance rate varies per region. The northwestern region of Turkey has the highest insurance rate, with 33 percent, whereas that rate stands at 14 percent in southeast Turkey, including the province of Van. Within the region, Van has the lowest insurance rate, with 9 percent, which means 7,318 buildings are insured out of a total of 84,000. DASK President Selamet Yazıcı said the rate insured buildings in Van’s district of Erciş is relatively higher, as the number of insured buildings there is 1,303.
Yazıcı highlighted that especially after the earthquakes of Simav and Elazığ on March 8, 2010, more people applied to the DASK. “Unfortunately, people realize the importance of something and take action when they lose it or something bad happens. After the earthquake in Elazığ a 15 percent increase in number of insured buildings was seen. Yet it this earthquake has revealed that it is still not enough,” Yazıcı said.
Sakarya Üniversitesi Rector Muzaffer Elmas said that 2,000 buildings are at risk of being ruined. “A team from our university had announced that they could voluntarily examine buildings with more than five floors and check whether they are safe or not, but only 10 people requested to have their buildings inspected,” said Elmas.
Elmas told Cihan news agency reporters that the earthquake in Van was not unexpected. “Ninety-six percent of Turkey is considered an earthquake zone and Erciş is no exception. That is why it [the earthquake] should not come as a surprise. And if the buildings in an earthquake zone are not strong enough, then it is only normal to see buildings being destroyed. Turkey has specified the regions that are at risk of earthquakes in an earthquake region map, so it [the earthquake] is not unexpected. The buildings in Erciş that were built before the year 2000 were all weak, and, consequently, they collapsed,” Elmas said.
Turkish Ready Mix Concrete Association (THBB) head Ayhan Güleryüz also noted that there are seven ready mix concrete companies in Van, but none of them has the Quality Assurance System (KGS) title to guarantee its quality and to prove that they have been inspected by the THBB.
Video footage of the Marmara earthquake in 1999 showed that the failure of load-bearing columns was a leading cause of building collapse in this earthquake. Other causes for the collapse of multi-storey buildings were that they had been constructed with concrete of poor quality and had unsafe joints at columns and girders. Experts say footage from the Van earthquake show the same constructional mistakes.
The upper floors in the buildings in Erciş were in a relatively good condition, but the bottom floors did not bear the building’s load and collapsed. Güleryüz pointed that the main reason of the collapses is the poor quality of the construction materials and lack of construction inspections. |
Source : todayszaman.com
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