Istanbul Governor Davut Gül attended the Marmara Basin Basin Water Board Meeting, which will be held under the coordination of the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry.
At the meeting, the protection of water resources, measures to prevent water pollution, priority studies and investment needs were discussed; The evaluations of the relevant institutions on the work carried out within the scope of combating floods and agricultural drought were discussed.
At the meeting, which started with the opening speech of Water Management General Manager Afire Sever, Istanbul Governor Davut Gül spoke about the flood disaster that occurred last week.
Gül said, "There was no flood out of nowhere. In fact, everyone living in this city, as our fellow citizens, citizens, and administrators, is more or less at fault for this flood. If timely measures had been taken, 7 (our citizens) might not have died. We do not consider these measures only as stream improvement." he said.
"Actually, such a huge flood came that we might have been talking about different numbers, not 7, God forbid."
Gül gave the following information:
"Our general manager said. We encountered an amount of rainfall that we could encounter once in 500 years. Unfortunately, 7 of our fellow citizens passed away as a result. We wish God's mercy on them. The death of 7 people in such a big disaster can be evaluated as follows. Of course, we do not look at this issue as a statistic. We do not want even one of our citizens to get their nails damaged. Therefore, we are heartbroken for each of the 7 people. Their families are sad in this sense. Their loved ones are sad and the fire is gone." "It's burning the ground. You saw it on TV. Those of you who live in the city experienced this. In fact, it was such a big flood that, God forbid, we could have been talking about different numbers today."
"EVERYONE LIVING IN THIS CITY HAS A LITTLE OR MORE FLAW IN THIS FLOOD HAPPENING"
"In that respect, there was no flood out of nowhere. In fact, everyone living in this city, as our fellow townspeople, citizens and administrators, is more or less at fault for this flood. If timely measures had been taken, 7 (our citizens) might not have died. We do not consider these measures only as stream improvement. As I have just counted, all stakeholders are more or less at fault."
"THE BUILDINGS WE DEMOLISHED ARE UNLICENSED AND EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT BUILDINGS ON THE STREAM BED"
"There were buildings we demolished. Buildings in the stream bed, unlicensed buildings, buildings not resistant to earthquakes. At the same time, they were a serious risk, buildings that contained risks in themselves, buildings that could be demolished even without an earthquake. Yes, it is a fault for our citizens to do this to the stream bed, to do this without a title deed, to do this without earthquake resistance, but as municipalities, as administrators in every mechanism of the state, we had to intervene while these were being done and created there. This of course took 3 years, 5 years. It is not a matter of this year or 10 years, but the flaws of all of us and those before us, of 50 years or 100 years.
When we visited flooded areas, many of them were already visible to the naked eye. It is obvious that the water bed has been narrowed as much as possible and no precautions regarding water have been taken. Of course, what do we do next? What we need to do from now on is actually stated in the legislation, it is the duty of each of us, and when we fulfill these duties, we can minimize the problems. We need a will where decisions do not remain in writing, where there is no unregistered construction, and where we do not allow (unregistered) life in stream beds and similar places. It happens once in 500 years, once in 300 years, once in 1000 years. It's unclear when this will happen. "And when it happens, an issue that is just statistics for us, that we can only say 'It rains once in 500 years, it rained this much this year, while it rains this much every year', extinguishes someone's heart."
"THERE IS NEARLY 10 BILLION DAMAGES"
"Therefore, we have material and moral losses. In this last flood alone, there is a direct and indirect damage of approximately 10 billion, and our deceased citizens have already suffered immeasurable pain. We evaluate it separately. The existence of water is of special importance, its absence is even more important. In its absence, we experience drought. In its presence, the storage, use, preservation of water, transporting it under suitable conditions from one place to another is solved by engineering science, engineering science produces a solution in this sense, only a will emerges." When put in perspective, they are actually small issues that can go away if we all do our job.
After this stage, just as the August 17 earthquake became a milestone, the floods we experienced last week should also be a milestone for Marmara, especially for Istanbul. All the numbers have changed. All our expectations have changed. We cannot predict when and where it will flow. As long as we store water properly, improve the channels properly and do not obstruct it properly, there is no risk. It can be managed and benefited from very easily. "I hope and think that this meeting, the meetings we will hold from now on, and the decisions we will make will provide some solution to what we are talking about."
