News

The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) and the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) organized a workshop on “Disaster Preparedness Workshop for Istanbul” to be held at the Wyndham Grand Levent Hotel on Aug. 15-16, 2018.

Preparations, problems and solutions for natural and man-made disasters that would pose risk for Istanbul will be the main topics of the workshop.

On the first day of the workshop, Dr. Hayri BARAÇLI, Secretary General of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality; Dr. Mehmet Güllüoğlu, the head of AFAD; Mr. Ahmet Önal, Deputy Governor of Istanbul; academicians, public administrators, journalists and representatives of Civil Society Organizations participated in the workshop.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop Dr. Baraçlı said, “Over the past 30 years, there has been an increase in natural disasters due to climate change. We are making preparations for the earthquake emergency and all other disasters. Especially, Disaster coordination center (AKOM) has been actively working on this issue for years. Last year, 330 different natural disasters have been experienced worldwide. Natural disasters in 2017 generated $353 Billion of Economic Loss to the world economy. Therefore, there has been an increase of 93 percent in disaster rates as compared to the previous years. This shows how important disaster management is badly needed across the world. The works and studies on disaster management at the IMM have been going on since the 1999 earthquake. I believe that this workshop will provide a significant contribution for preparing Istanbul and our country for future disasters."