Authorities in Istanbul have demolished shops, a stadium and other buildings standing on a stream bed in Sarıyer’s Ayazağa neighbourhood, one of the areas worst hit by last week’s floods, to clear the way for flood-control works.
Environment and Urbanisation Minister Murat Kurum visited the area over the weekend and presented residents with two options for rebuilding the neighbourhood, according to emlakkulisi.com.
Stream-bed buildings torn down
Demolition began on Saturday and continued on Sunday. By Sunday afternoon, 19 shops on Ayazağa Square, a Quran course building and the Ayazağa Atatürk Stadium had been knocked down, NTV reported, and crews were clearing debris. Istanbul Governor Davut Gül said staff housing units would also be demolished once their residents had moved to new homes, and that the stadium would be rebuilt elsewhere.
Gül cited four problems with the structures: they sat on the stream bed, were not earthquake-resistant, stood on land without title deeds and had no building permits. Clearing them allows Istanbul’s water utility İSKİ to rehabilitate a 1,700-metre section of the stream, he said on Saturday, adding that other streams in the city also need work.
The October 14 downpour broke an 84-year rainfall record in Istanbul, flooding roads and sweeping away vehicles. In Ayazağa water reached about 2.5 metres, according to an NTV reporter. Gül said on Sunday that two people from Ayazağa were still missing.
Two routes for rebuilding
At a coordination meeting with residents attended by Gül, TOKİ head Levent Sungur and local officials, Kurum offered two models for the area’s renewal. The first is on-site rebuilding under the "Yarısı Bizden" (Half From Us) campaign, in which the state covers part of the cost through grants and loans. The second is a TOKİ-led transformation carried out block by block under a reserve-area model.
Kurum said an urban transformation liaison office would open in Ayazağa to collect residents’ requests directly, and described urban renewal as an urgent necessity for Istanbul. He blamed the scale of the damage on the covered-over stream and unplanned urbanisation, and said stream rehabilitation would also be carried out in nearby Cendere. "The traces of the disaster will be erased," he said.
The floods killed at least two people and diverted flights last week, and affected households have been paid 10,000 lira in initial aid. The rain did bring one benefit, lifting Istanbul’s reservoirs sharply. For anyone weighing where to live in the city, our Living in Istanbul guide looks at districts and practical risks.
Sources
- Murat Kurum Sarıyer Ayazağa’nın dönüşümü için 2 seçenek sundu! (Emlakkulisi)
- Ayazağa’da son durum. Binalar yıkıldı, enkaz kaldırılıyor (NTV)
- İstanbul Valisi Gül: Ayazağa’da yıkımlar başladı (CNN Türk)
Photo: Allen Turner / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
