The limitations of urban development: Have we reached the limitations of urban planning?

Is it not surprising that since the year 1967, 13 additional floods caused havoc and destruction in and around İstanbul -- although luckily not always resulting in the loss of life -- and still no measures were put in place to prevent this week's 14th. Why had the previous flooding in 2002 not led to an administrative rethinking of policies?

What İstanbul and other parts of the country witnessed due to rain and flooding was not only a weather-linked accident waiting to happen, and the word accident is not anywhere near a correct term to measure the loss of life. It was a disaster -- nothing more and nothing less -- that could perhaps have been prevented or at least not have resulted in the loss of life if only foresightedness on the policy-making level ruled the day. I am talking indeed about many mistakes that have been made over many decades, if not longer. Long before the modern republic was founded, Turkey's past rulers knew about the dangers resulting from rising water levels -- it is not a 21st century problem at all.

I do not wish to recount the sad details and figures as they have been widely publicized by our colleagues near and far including TV stations all over Europe. I do not wish to share some other newspapers' colleagues viewpoints either that this disaster is a bad omen for İstanbul as next year’s European Capital of Culture -- this would be misrepresenting facts as the present town hall administration was not in charge when over many decades buildings and roads crept up everywhere in İstanbul where they should not have been allowed to be constructed in the first place. City planners must have known that one day the dams would break, sewers would burst or simply too much rain would change the city's traffic arteries into overflowing and ultimately deadly waterways.

While the fact that İstanbul saw the worst rainfall in over 80 years is indeed something that cannot be forecast, global warming may have played a role, and the fact that perhaps too many people have made İstanbul their home in a too short period of time inevitably led to overcrowding. There are, however, other issues at stake that must be addressed without delay.

Take İstanbul's district of Alibeyköy, situated on the western shores of the Bosporus, as an example. Whenever I exited the motorway I asked myself what would happen if one day too much rain flooded the roads in the valley that lead to the garages of many coach companies. As a matter of fact quite often the roads where partly flooded and buses were delayed, too. Many parts of town have a similar economic geography: large numbers of private residences side by side with large numbers of business complexes and storage units.

Life in a metropolis must be managed though, and this leads me to my point of criticism directed towards past local and perhaps even national administrations: The rapid growth of the city seems not to have been planned correctly, in particular the pairing of an increase in the size of the population with corresponding improvements in its infrastructure development. A city surrounded by water must at all times have preventive measures in place for times when inclement weather may lead to a rise in the water levels. It must have a perfect sewage system. It must allow for the flow of water away from houses and roads. İstanbul's inner city canals, waterways, drainage systems and dams must be able to accommodate heavy rainfall or any other increase in water levels as this happens on a regular basis.

Architects and construction experts must now analyze which parts of İstanbul are prone to similar disasters and how they can be prevented. Investments are required, and I doubt whether the town hall can find enough funding by itself. A local and perhaps even national commission should be set up to discuss what can be done in other parts of the country, too, as the floods did not only result in the loss of life in İstanbul.

Now is not the time to point the finger in the direction of a few individuals but for everyone who has a genuine interest in this city to roll up their sleeves and start overhauling its infrastructure. An undertaking of colossal proportions, but unavoidable. A classic case for a public-private partnership. Party politically motivated bickering is the last thing the families of the victims want to see -- they demand improvements in the city's infrastructure, fast and rightly so. Have we reached the limitations of urban development? Not necessarily -- as long as it is well planned and becomes part of city management in general.