Shaking Up Priorities: Report Calls on Turkish Municipalities to Bolster Earthquake Defenses Amid Growing Risks
Osman Çaklı / Newspaper Wall
Turkey’s Public Expenditure Monitoring Platform (KAHİP) prepared a report that examined the disaster budgets of metropolitan municipalities before and after the February 6 earthquakes. The report compared the disaster budgets of 30 metropolitan municipalities between 2022 and 2024, revealing the extent to which local governments were prepared for disasters.
Although Turkey is in an area that is prone to earthquakes, its lack of preparedness came to the fore once again after tens of thousands of buildings collapsed following the recent earthquakes. Earthquake experts have been warning that new and devastating earthquakes could occur at any time.
The KAHİP report highlighted that Turkey’s preparedness is lacking for new earthquakes. The report noted significant differences in disaster budgets among municipalities. For example, the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality in the Aegean stood out by allocating eight percent of its total budget to disaster-related purposes in 2024.
However, in some municipalities, the proportion of the disaster budget to the total budget was less than one percent. In many municipalities in high risk earthquake zones, this ratio decreased despite the expectations of higher budgets.
The report also analyzed the distribution of disaster budgets within metropolitan municipalities. When examining the budgets for “risk reduction” and “response” separately, it was found that local governments were prioritizing spending on disaster response measures while allocating insufficient resources to risk reduction.
The report also made a notable comment about “urban transformation,” stating, “Nearly half of the budget allocated for risk reduction by local governments is related to urban transformation, indicating a focus on profit.”
The report emphasized the need to abandon profit-driven approaches to urban transformation and create environmentally friendly, energy-efficient green buildings and resilient cities that take into account the geographical, cultural and sociological characteristics of the region.
He also drew attention to the inadequacy of local government budgets for this purpose and called for additional funding through a collaborative approach between central and local governments.
The report compared the earthquake budgets of the municipalities with the budgets of other organisations.
In 2024, the total disaster budgets of Turkey’s 29 metropolitan municipalities and their related organizations were 26 billion liras. Meanwhile, the salaries of the personnel of the Presidency of Religious Affairs in 2024 were 77.6 billion liras, with a total budget of 91.8 billion liras. The General Directorate of Highways had a budget of 267 billion liras in 2024.
Compared to 2022 and 2023, it was observed that the proportion of the disaster budget in the total budget decreased in metropolitan municipalities in first degree earthquake zones where an increase was expected, such as Bursa, Denizli, and Sakarya.
In Hatay, the province hardest hit in the February 6 earthquakes, the share of the disaster budget increased from 0.1 percent in 2023 to 0.9 percent in 2024.
The share of resources allocated from the budget of another Maraş province that suffered from the earthquake in 2024 was very low.
Among metropolitan municipalities in second and third degree earthquake zones, the importance given to disaster preparedness by Istanbul and the western province of Tekirdağ was highlighted in the report.
Both provinces saw an increase in their disaster budget shares in 2024 compared to 2023, with Istanbul’s share reaching 5.24 percent and Tekirdağ’s share at 5.22 percent.
The report also shared findings on other municipalities. “It should be noted here that disaster budgets are low in cities in second or third degree earthquake zones, such as Malatya, Samsun, Maraş, Antalya, Diyarbakır, Eskişehir, and cities in first degree earthquake zones, such as Hatay, Muğla. , Sakarya, Aydın, and Denizli.”
(English version by Ayşenaz Toptaş)