Büyükçekmece Municipality has signed a life-saving protocol with AKUT

Büyükçekmece Mayor Dr. Hasan Akgün has signed a protocol along with the President of the AKUT Foundation, Nasuh Mahruki, to minimize the loss of life and property during the aftermath of the expected Istanbul earthquake.

Following the ceremony Mayor Akgün, “We don’t know when the Istanbul earthquake will hit us, but we know that being prepared as it may happen any time is vital.”

Büyükçekmece Municipality accelerates the urban transformation projects and takes precautions against the expected Istanbul earthquake. Within this framework, a protocol has been signed with AKUT Foundation. The protocol includes the training of preparation for disasters and emergencies, risk reduction to ensure the safety of life and property in emergencies, first response in emergency cases, good management of the post-disaster emergency response process, and accelerating the transition process to the recovering together to minimize the possible loss of life and property. 

As a result of the protocol, the training of ‘Basic Disaster Awareness will be given for Municipality personnel and their families. ‘Advanced Search and Rescue’ training will be given to Büyükçekmece Search and Rescue Teams (BAKUT). Municipality personnel and BAKUT members will be the first to be trained. After that, the training will continue in 24 districts of the city. 

“We should always be on alert, as an earthquake may happen any time”

After the ceremony, Mayor Akgün stated that “We can’t know when the Istanbul earthquake will happen, but it is vital to be prepared for it. We have signed a specific protocol with Mr. Mahruki and the foundation that he leads. Thanks to this protocol, my friend Nasuh will provide us more effective services, as he always provided us in the past. He will help us both on giving the training district-based and raising our search and rescue teams. As the Büyükçekmece Municipality, we demolish tens and hundreds of buildings daily as a part of urban transformation. But we know that the earthquake may happen at any time. Some buildings are yet to go under urban transformation, and when the earthquake hits, the residents inside those buildings should be prepared for the aftermath, and by this protocol, we make it happen. And this protocol is all about the implementation of the disaster and emergency management in our city.”

“We just started a practice that will take a year”

The President of the AKUT Foundation, Nasuh Mahruki, commented on the protocol as “This protocol foresees the municipality personnel along with their families to be the significant factor of the city’s disaster plan. We will start a project to update the Municipality’s current emergency management system and make it fit the current conditions. We will make it more useful and easy to imply. Actually, we are improving the capability of Büyükçekmece Municipality’s disaster recovery right now. Educating the personnel, revising the current plans, training the executive officers, including Mayor himself and their families, against the earthquake and any other disaster by ensuring them not to worry about their families so they can manage the process healthfully will take a year. The next stage will be about forming up volunteer teams in each district. At first, we will form up a team that is trained on advanced search and rescue within the Municipality. After this, we will teach how to form up emergency response teams and put them on work in the first 24 hours and the following days. This is our program.”