Public expenditure report urges Turkey's municipalities to spend more on quake preparation

Osman Çaklı / Gazete Duvar

Turkey’s Public Expenditure Monitoring Platform (KAHİP) prepared a report that examined the disaster budgets of metropolitan municipalities before and after the Feb. 6 earthquakes. The report compared the disaster budgets of 30 metropolitan municipalities between 2022 and 2024, revealing the extent to which local governments were prepared for disasters.

Despite Turkey being in an earthquake-prone region, its lack of preparedness became evident once again after tens of thousands of buildings collapsed following the recent earthquakes. Earthquake experts have been warning that new and destructive earthquakes could occur at any time.

KAHİP's report highlighted that Turkey’s preparedness fell short for new earthquakes. The report indicated significant differences in disaster budgets among municipalities. For instance, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality in the Aegean stood out by allocating eight percent of its total budget for disaster-related purposes in 2024.

However, in some municipalities, the proportion of the disaster budget to the total budget was less than one percent. In many municipalities in high-risk earthquake zones, this ratio decreased despite expectations of increased budgets.

The report also analyzed the distribution of disaster budgets within metropolitan municipalities. When examining the budgets for "risk reduction" and "response" separately, it was found that local governments prioritized spending on disaster response measures while allocating insufficient resources to risk reduction. 

The report also made a noteworthy observation regarding "urban transformation," stating, "Nearly half of the budget allocated for risk reduction by local governments is related to urban transformation, indicating a focus on profit."

The report emphasized the need to abandon profit-driven approaches to urban transformation and to create environmentally friendly, energy-efficient, green buildings and resilient cities that take into account the region's geographical, cultural, and sociological characteristics. 

It also highlighted the inadequacy of local government budgets for this purpose and called for additional funding through a collaborative approach between central and local governments.

The report compared the municipalities’ earthquake budgets with the budgets of other institutions. 

In 2024, the total disaster budgets of Turkey’s 29 metropolitan municipalities and their affiliated institutions amounted to 26 billion liras. Meanwhile, the personnel salaries of the Religious Affairs Presidency in 2024 was 77.6 billion liras, with a total budget of 91.8 billion liras. The General Directorate of Highways had a budget of 267 billion liras in 2024.

When compared to 2022 and 2023, it was observed that the share of the disaster budget in the total budget decreased in metropolitan municipalities in first-degree earthquake zones where an increase was expected, such as Bursa, Denizli, and Sakarya. 

In Hatay, the hardest-hit province in the quakes of Feb. 6, the share of the disaster budget increased from 0.1 percent in 2023 to 0.9 percent in 2024. 

The share of the resources allocated from another quake-afflicted province Maraş's budget in 2024 was very low.

Among metropolitan municipalities in second and third-degree earthquake zones, the importance given to disaster preparedness by Istanbul and the western province of Tekirdağ was highlighted in the report. 

Both provinces saw an increase in their disaster budget shares in 2024 compared to 2023, with Istanbul's share reaching 5.24 percent and Tekirdağ's at 5.22 percent.

The report also shared findings on other municipalities. "It should be noted here that disaster budgets are low in cities in second or third-degree earthquake zones, such as Malatya, Samsun, Maraş, Antalya, Diyarbakır, Eskişehir, and cities in first-degree earthquake zones, such as Hatay, Muğla, Sakarya, Aydın, and Denizli." 

(English version by Ayşenaz Toptaş)