Turkish parliament adopts law to transform disaster-risk areas

Turkey, frequently affected by devastating earthquakes, will transform the areas which are under the risk of environmental disasters.

Parliament adopted a law on Thursday which envisages the renewal and transformation of areas that are under earthquake risk.

Turkish Environment & Urbanization Minister Erdogan Bayraktar said that residence stock in Turkey nearly reached 20 million, and 40 percent of those residences should be renewed.

Noting that it was necessary to renew the residences by dividing into certain periods such as 2, 5, 10, 15 and 20 years, Bayraktar said, “because it has a very high cost.”

According to the newly adopted law, the government will give a 60 days of period (earlier 30 days) to the owner, whose house will be collapsed as it is under the disaster risk. Houses will not be collapsed until the owner is given a new temporary house.

Earlier, Bayraktar said that Turkey should continue faster with urban transformation in regions where there was risk of environmental disaster.

Turkey is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes because it sits on major geological fault lines.

A powerful quake shook eastern Turkey on October 23 last year, killing more than 600 people. It was followed on November 12 by a 5.6 magnitude tremor that killed another 40 people in the same area.

In 1999, two strong quakes in heavily populated and industrialised parts of northwest Turkey left some 20,000 people dead.

18.05.2012
SOURCE: CUMHURIYET ENGLISH