In the nature of things, generally reaction follow solely when disaster strikes, i.e. when it is too late. As disasters leave their mortal impact, and when therefore several innocent individuals lost their lives, there can be finger-pointing and clamor for blood. Such was the case with the recent flash floods in Istanbul. Since 1967, Istanbul suffered 13 floods that inevitably caused havoc and destruction in and around the city. Apparently there have been no flood mitigation measures place into place prior to the flash floods in September 2009. The last floods in 2002, despite the expertise, had not prompted any rethinking of policies vis-?-vis urban planning. It's described as a "weather-connected accident waiting to happen". What happened went beyond the term accident; it turned out to be a horrendous disaster. (i)
At the worst stage of the torrential rains, access into sections of Istanbul including the highway that links to Istanbul Ataturk International Airport was cut-off. When the 2 Istanbul streams burst their banks, homes and workplaces within the adjoining areas were severely flooded, with in depth injury to property and infrastructure. In the raging floods, roads was quick flowing rivers drowning several trapped enroute to work. The surging waters flipped trucks and buses over like matchsticks, crushing them into piles of debris. The disaster struck low-lying areas on the western facet of Turkey's largest town where drainage is usually poor. The surging flash floods, moved at high speed, barreling across a major highway and into Istanbul's busy business districts and in the process trapping factory employees and truck drivers in their vehicles. Tons of homes and offices were flooded, in some places the waters 2 meters high. Emergency authorities confirmed that some one,700 homes and offices were flooded in Istanbul's suburbs of Silivri.
The damages incurred were once more recent reminders to exercise care when designing urban development plans. Poor urban planning can obviously result in inadequate infrastructure and when compounded by rapid population growth, the urban risks increase in magnitude. The Istanbul Chamber of Commerce assessed that the damages caused by the flash floods ranged from $eighty million to $90 million.
The Istanbul Meteorology Department said that the rainfall was the heaviest recorded within the last 80 years. It was apparent that Istanbul's creaking infrastructure was unable to deal with the surge of water. Skewed and unplanned development plus inadequate infrastructure have resulted in water flows being obstructed from reaching the sea through natural channels. The authorities acknowledged that the disaster "could be a result of great negligence" attributed to spates of illegal construction in riverbeds in Istanbul. Exercising nice care in coming up with infrastructure and urban areas become a lot of critical especially within the case of Istanbul, that is situated on the steep banks of the Bosphorus Straits.
Istanbul's rapid population growth had been fueled by decades of rural-urban migration from impoverished regions. Hence, town, a metropolis of 15 million has developed without adequate infrastructure to accommodate even a moderate rainfall. Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan known as the floods "the disaster of the century". While blaming the high death toll on record rainfall he conjointly pointed the finger on developers who made buildings in vulnerable riverbeds and flood plains. Erdogan quoted a local saying "the river's revenge will be strong". Many urban designing consultants said government officials also are partly to blame for the high death toll. Istanbul's Chamber of Architects alleged that the town's administration created these conditions by permitting high density construction within the affected areas. The Chamber sought a court injunction but didn't achieve preventing construction of business and industrial zones in western districts of Istanbul around the Ayamama River, where much of the flood occurred. Unable to be absorbed by the ground, the water rises since the riverbeds are was concrete channels together with the buildings around it. And already there are fresh warnings of bigger disasters.
The prime factors of flash floods have repeatedly been attributed to unplanned urbanization and the resulting erosion. Inadequate drainage systems and improper land use add on to the risks involved. Uncontrolled construction in an exceedingly lax atmosphere of urban designing while not careful consideration for risk reduction could be a recipe for disaster. The load and force of any pressure applied to the acute limits will eventually break the walls of resistance. Any Town Designing student is aware of that with extreme pressure, dams would break; sewers burst their embankments, whereas the roads and streets flip into overflowing deadly waterways.
Hence, fast urbanization ought to be sustained on city designing tracks, the event to infrastructural facilities designed appreciate wants and also the population growth. Urban development has its own risks. Left uncontrolled, unplanned and un-managed it will be disastrous eventuality.
Surprisingly, Turkey is not any stranger to flash floods. Reports prepared by the Ministry of Public Works' General Directorate of Disaster Affairs and State Waterworks Authority (DSI) revealed that floods are the second most destructive type of disaster within the country. In step with the report, 287 floods have occurred in Turkey within the past twenty years. Major flood disasters are once more not new for Turkey.
The International Emergency Disasters Database (EM-DAT) indicated that between 1903 and 2003, Turkey experienced 32 major floods. The economic loss over the past 20 years is estimated to be $two billion. The impact of these floods on development, economic growth may be an incredible drag. With the flood scenarios being oft repeated events, it noteworthy to understand that the Turkish authorities spends $thirty million each year for infrastructural measures to prevent flooding. The flash flood prevention programme which DSI implemented since 1970 apparently achieved in reducing the number of annual flash floods significantly.(ii) Which will be the case for the countrywide flood prevention programme, but the disastrous scenes in Istanbul clearly indicate that any deficiencies in mitigating measures can soon lash back with fury.
Author Resource:-
Bob has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in flood,you can also check out his latest website about:
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