İsa ERSOY, Conspectus Academy Partner, states that in order to create disaster-resilient cities and institutions, public sector, private sector, academia, and NGO stakeholders must engage in interdisciplinary interaction and collaboration.
In addition to international scientific research, the February 6 earthquakes, flood disasters, and forest fires, as well as the anticipated major Istanbul earthquake, demonstrate that a significant portion of our country is exposed to disaster and emergency risks.
Alongside the IRAP reports prepared by AFAD regarding disaster and emergency risks, many scientific studies have been conducted by ministries and affiliated institutions. As a result of these studies, large-scale disaster risks and their potential impacts on cities are now well understood.
Unfortunately, disaster and emergency risk management in our country suffers from fragmentation, leading to authority conflicts and reducing the efficiency of implementations. For effective and efficient disaster management, authority and responsibilities should be structured to complement rather than conflict with one another—this is a critical necessity.
Moreover, Turkey has prioritized crisis management over risk management, addressing issues only after disasters occur. Many manageable risks turn into high-cost crises or even catastrophes because proactive measures are not taken in time.
As long as we fail to develop a culture of disaster awareness at both societal and institutional levels, the best efforts of government agencies, NGOs, and international search and rescue teams will do little more than mitigate the severity of disaster consequences—they will not prevent them.
During the Kyoto Protocol discussions, Japanese scientists pointed out that for every $1 invested in preventive measures, $36 is saved in post-disaster recovery costs.
In 2004, after the Niigata earthquake (6.8 magnitude), SANYO’s production facility suffered no significant structural damage except for broken glass. However, due to a post-earthquake gas leak, the main production unit remained inactive for months.
Since chip production could not be relocated in time, supply chain disruptions led to a $2.1 billion loss in 2005, and by 2009, SANYO went bankrupt and was acquired by Panasonic.
In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in 11 deaths and 17 severe injuries.
Investigations revealed that the contractor had failed to conduct pre-operational tests, which could have been completed in 12 hours for a cost of $130,000.
This negligence led to the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history, with economic losses estimated at $8.7–10.2 billion, later revised to nearly $19 billion in 2023.
Disaster and emergency risk management is not a task that any single stakeholder—whether local governments, central authorities, private sector, or NGOs—can handle alone. To build disaster-resilient cities and institutions, public, private, academic, and civil society stakeholders must engage in interdisciplinary collaboration and interaction.
All stakeholders are interconnected like links in a chain—only by working together can the desired success be achieved. However, if one link is weak or missing, the burden on the remaining links increases, potentially collapsing the entire system and leading to disaster.
Within the Disaster Risk Reduction Framework, companies must establish a Standardized Emergency Management System to strengthen their prevention and detection capabilities, protect against all hazards and threats, and enhance preparedness, response, recovery, and resource allocation to minimize the impact of disasters and emergencies.
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