‘Two new cities’ a catastrophe for Istanbul, experts say

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

The prime minister said Wednesday building two new settlements near Istanbul will help provide safer housing for the city residents living in earthquake danger zones.

The prime minister said Wednesday building two new settlements near Istanbul will help provide safer housing for the city residents living in earthquake danger zones.

Plans to add two new settlements to Istanbul will be a “catastrophe” for the environment and the city’s ecosystem, and it will not solve the earthquake problem, according to experts.

“Two new ‘districts’ in Istanbul would be a catastrophe for the environment,” Beyza Üstün, a member of Istanbul’s Environment Engineers Chamber and professor at Yıldız Technical University, told the Hürriyet Daily News in a phone interview on Thursday.

Istanbul will be unable to breathe, as the only remaining forest areas and water basins in the northern part of the city will be destroyed, according to Üstün. “This will have devastating effects not only on humans, but on the whole ecosystem in the city.” She also said the few remaining agricultural fields in the area would also be destroyed.

The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, confirmed Wednesday the ruling Justice and Developing Party’s, or AKP’s, plans to add two new settlements in northern Istanbul. According to the plan, one of the new cities will be built in largely uninhabited mining areas along the Black Sea coast on Istanbul’s European side, where the risk of earthquakes is lower. The other will be built on the Anatolian side of the city. Though the party is using the term “two cities” for the plan, the proposed settlements will be built as new extensions of Istanbul rather than constructing two separate cities.

Making plans that destroy the environment where people live in is incompliant with the constitution, according to Üstün, who said they would keep struggling to protect the environment both through legal ways and through people’s resistance.

“The project will not solve the earthquake resistance problem of the city, it will just create new economic value. New cities imply new problems,” Tayfun Kahraman, the chairman of Istanbul’s City Planners Chamber, told the Daily News on Thursday.

The prime minister said Wednesday building two new settlements near Istanbul will help provide safer housing for the city residents living in earthquake danger zones.

“What about the already existing city, its buildings? Earthquakes are a reality Istanbul faces day-to-day. A solution must be found, but through doable and implemented projects,” Kahraman said. Trying to address the earthquake problem by building new settlements will only cover the existing problem, and not solve it, he added.

Istanbul lies near the North Anatolian fault line, one of the most active seismic zones in the world. An earthquake in 1999 killed 17,000 people in İzmit, a city about 60 miles to the east across the Marmara Sea. Experts foresee a large-scale earthquake will hit Istanbul in the coming three decades.

“I am against transferring the city to far away locations,” Ali Çetin Önder, the chairman of TADEM, a real estate evaluation and consultancy firm, told the Daily News in a phone interview Wednesday. There are still many areas with illegal and unplanned housing and shanty houses within Istanbul, said Önder, who added authorities had to first address such zones, before trying to expand the city. “Otherwise, costs of urban planning will increase further.”

The prime minister said the new settlements would also make traffic lighter within Istanbul. While Önder said this could be partly the case, as the new settlement would attract immigrants, thus preventing the city center becoming more crowded, Kahraman said, “Nothing can be said at this point. It is still unclear what sort of infrastructure will come with the two new districts.”

A radical increase of Istanbul’s population is another concern Kahraman stressed, saying that should the “two new cities project” be approved, Istanbul’s population would indisputably exceed 20 million by 2023. “There will be more migration to the city. Low income people will want a share of the new rent created by the project.”

Plans for two new settlements, however, have been very good news for the real estate sector agents. “This will be an important real estate movement. The plans will keep the real estate sector dynamic for the next decade,” Nezametin Aşa, the second chairman of Istanbul’s Real Estate Commissioners Chamber, told the Daily News on Wednesday.

via ‘Two new cities’ a catastrophe for Istanbul, experts say – Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review.