TMB Calls for Action as Part of Earthquake Week

The Contractors Association of Turkey (TMB) issued a call during Earthquake Awareness Week on 1-7 March. Stating that there are more than 400,000 contractors in the country and that some of them consist of individuals without any training, let alone technical education, TMB Chairman M. Erdal Eren said, "Earthquakes bring destruction and suffering to our country. We see that, above all, the urban transformation process, which we have raised at every opportunity, must be urgently completed with a disaster-focused approach." [caption id="attachment_149900" align="aligncenter"] TMB Chairman M. Erdal Eren[/caption]

TMB Chairman M. Erdal Eren made the following remarks on the subject:

"We grieve collectively over the earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş on 6 February, which directly affected approximately 14 million citizens in 11 of our provinces and resulted in the loss of life of more than 45,000 citizens. With our condolences for the citizens we lost and our wishes for our entire country, our greatest hope is that similar disasters do not occur again. With the continuing disasters, our country's earthquake reality repeatedly reveals itself. As we have always said, we must now face the fact that it is not earthquakes that kill people, but negligence and faulty construction. In the 'Construction Sector Declaration' that we announced under 10 points as the constitution of our sector in 2014, we pointed to problems related to building safety and proposed solutions. Since then, nature continues to remind us of the importance of 'proper planning, proper design, qualified contracting and strict inspection' in the construction of our country. Our weaknesses in areas such as education, inspection and responsibility are significant throughout the construction sector. In recent earthquakes, we experienced examples of this with deep sorrow. There are more than 400,000 contractors in our country, and some of them consist of individuals without any training, let alone technical education. First, the 'Regulation on Classification and Registration of Building Contractors' issued in 2019 to classify building contractors according to their economic, financial, professional and technical competence must be implemented effectively and without compromise throughout the country. The inspection system mechanisms in the sector must also be strengthened. Accepting the fact that responsibility is multi-faceted in this process, we must entirely remove applications such as amnesty on development from our agenda and, conversely, ensure that sanctions are deterrent. Unfortunately, our country has a very large building stock built to pre-1999 Marmara Earthquake specifications. Accelerating urban transformation steps with a 'disaster-focused' approach is of great importance. There is a need for unsafe buildings to be rapidly evacuated without leaving the initiative to citizens and for transformation to take place with state support. In an environment where the probability of a Marmara earthquake is increasing each day and risks persist in our other regions, we have no time to lose in preparing for earthquakes. As TMB, together with other umbrella organizations in the construction sector, we considered necessary for solutions following the 2020 earthquake; the headings 'Qualified Building Contractor, Strong Building Inspection, Competent Engineering System, Workforce with Professional Competence Certificate, Quality Materials, Comprehensive Development Legislation and Informed Public Opinion' – on the occasion of Earthquake Awareness Week, we wish to remind the public and all concerned once again."