Alsancak Inspector speaks out on Building Debacle
Three
quarters of buildings inspected by the civil engineer of
Alsancak municipality would be in danger of collapse
if a strong earthquake hit the area, is the startling
assessment made by Baris Ulbar who inspects
hundreds of buildings on his day to day duties.
Mr.
Ulbar says, " The problems caused by the explosion in the
construction industry is getting out of hand".
These include noise pollution created by building work, Environmental
Destruction and the waste of resources caused by many
villas being built with a swimming pool and fireplace being
installed in almost every house.
But
the most important of all, according to
Mr.Ulbar, is the Danger to life from properties
built without inspection or using poor and low quality
materials. Mr Ulbar
goes on to say" the problems caused by the construction
sector are so vast that a day is not enough to speak about them
all. "
Mr
Ulbar sited the large construction site within the Alsancak
municipality (known to some as "the true
oasis") as a prime example.
The
platform shown below has been prepared for the foundations of
villas being built on a hillside by levelling the ground,
causing an abnormality in the natural
terrain.
In
addition, as you can see, excess earth from the levelling has
been dumped into the ravine, covering the vegetation on
the slope, creating the possibility that a landslide will happen
following heavy rains. This
could block the natural path of water flowing down the valley
and lead to further problems.
As
you look around this site in Alsancak, there are lots of other
surrounding construction projects built on sites
carved on hilltops with no retaining walls.
Referring to these, Mr Ulbar says there are no specific
regulations for developments built on slopes or on the side of
ravines. (Well perhaps there should be ).
Mr
Ulbar continues " As rain falls, earth dumped on the slope of
a ravine will slide down, possibly blocking the
river ". This
will obviously cause flood water to back up until the force
of pressure bursts the blockage, causing millions of
gallons of flood water to surge down the ravine along with rock
boulders and trees, washing away all in its path.
One has only to remember the tragic events in Lynmouth,
Mr. Ulbar says
" Some builders try to get around the rules however
they cannot fool nature." The environment is
being destroyed by efforts to change the shape of the terrain to
open space suitable for building.
As
laws stand now, Alsancak municipality's view has only to be
sought at the end of a procedure for the granting permission (perhaps
it should be sought prior to work starting).
Under
these circumstances, Mr. Ulbar says there is little planners can
do to stop developers flouting what regulations there are.
It seems
that it is not just the construction industry that needs
education on environmental issues as, when a negative report about
a large extension to a hotel without the required parking spaces
was submitted, top politicians put pressure on the author of the
report to withdraw it as it was seen as trying to block the path
of tourism.
Mr.Ulbar
goes on to say 75% of buildings he has personally inspected in
the past 2 years have been built in an unprofessional way and
could collapse should an earthquake occur.
It
would appear one of the major problems is that there is a lack
of inspections on most building sites and that the workers, most
of whom are brought in from Turkey, have never worked on large
scale developments, also they are doing the job according to
their own insufficient knowledge and without a proper ground
study being carried out.
Without
a proper ground study being carried out, who will decide if
the soil is hard enough and how deep the foundation pits will
be? The workers? The digger operator or the engineer who has not
showed up??
Low
quality housing is being constructed.
This can be seen by the examples of poor quality cement
being used & improper connection of iron bars used in
construction.
When
will it stop? Who
will be brave enough to stop it?