About 200,000 buildings in Istanbul could collapse in the absence of an earthquake

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The general manager of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's Kıptaş company, Ali Kurt, said on August 20 that about 200,000 buildings in the city are at risk of sudden collapse due to their poor construction.

Speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony for the renovation of a building on the Asian side of Istanbul, Kurt commented on the overall building stock in the province, which faces the risk of an earthquake of magnitude greater than 8 on the Richter scale in the next decade.

“Unfortunately, buildings were constructed using materials made from sea sand during a certain period in Istanbul. This was the technology and resources available at that time. A large part of the building stock in Istanbul today is made of this material quality, which is risky,” Kurt stated.

Rapid inspection tests carried out by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality after the catastrophic earthquakes that struck southeastern Turkey on February 6 surveyed 35,000 buildings and found that 1,556 of them were so poorly built that they could collapse at the slightest touch.

A study by the capital's municipality indicates that about 200,000 buildings fall into this category and could collapse without an earthquake.

Kurt explained that the municipalities of the Istanbul region and the metropolitan municipality will enter into cooperation protocols to clearly identify risks and start reinforcement efforts.

“Through this collaboration, we aim to inventory the entire building stock. This will give us a clear picture of the situation, but current studies indicate that around 200,000 buildings are at risk of collapse at any given time.”

Kurt also criticized the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change's renewal campaign, saying: “There is a technical flaw in the ministry's approach, as they are providing a grant of 700,000 liras and a long-term loan of 700,000 liras, assuming a total support of 1.4 million liras.”

Therefore, this amount is not enough to cover the construction costs, especially in Istanbul. “A construction project costs three million liras, and there is an additional 2.1 million liras left to cover each project individually. How will citizens manage this?”

Kurt found the financial support scheme offered by KİPTAŞ, which is based on a percentage of construction costs, to be “more realistic and sustainable.”

In addition, Kurt believes that the ministry’s efforts would be more effective if it cooperated with semi-public construction companies such as KİPTAŞ, rather than addressing private citizens with its “Half the Cost is on Us” campaign that promises to cover half of the costs of rebuilding dangerous buildings. “We (KİPTAŞ) have more than 27,500 risky independent units, and demolitions are already underway, involving around 100,000 people. We say, let’s build these houses together. Let’s allocate these resources fairly, but we have not received a response to our calls yet,” he complained.

The 25th anniversary of the Marmara earthquake has revived discussions about the impending quake in the megacity. The 7.4-magnitude quake on August 17, 1999, killed at least 18,000 people in the country's northwest and caused massive damage to Turkey's most populous and economically active region.

The latest reports from the Istanbul Planning Agency of the Istanbul Municipality indicate that 20% of Istanbul's buildings will be severely damaged, and that 1.3 million buildings out of 6.8 million in the city are at risk of collapse in a 7.5-magnitude earthquake.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu said 90,000 buildings in the megacity are at risk of complete collapse and the cost of making them earthquake-resistant could exceed 360 billion liras.

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