The closing meeting of the “Environmentally Sensitive Management of Earthquake Debris and Safe Disposal of Hazardous Waste Project”, carried out in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Japan for the regions affected by the February 6 Kahramanmaraş centered earthquakes, was held in Ankara.
Hosted by UNDP Turkey Resident Representative Louisa Vinton, the meeting was attended by Katsumata Takahiko, Ambassador of Japan to Ankara, İsmail Tüzgen, Director General for European Union and Foreign Relations of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, and Fatih Turan, Director General for Environmental Management.
In her speech here, Louisa Vinton gave information about the details of the project. Stating that UNDP has been working in cooperation with the relevant ministries since the first days to collect the debris, Vinton said that one of the goals is recycling.
Ambassador Katsumata also stated that the project designed to dispose of the debris in the earthquake zone and prevent the health of the local people from being endangered was successfully completed. Emphasizing his country's support in the project process, Katsumata thanked UNDP for its contribution to the project.
100 million cubic meters of rubble were revealed.
Director General for European Union and Foreign Relations İsmail Tüzgen said that approximately 100 million cubic meters of rubble emerged after the earthquake and that the Ministry consulted with many institutions and academics for removal procedures. Tüzgen emphasized that waste should be recycled into the economy in an environmentally friendly way.
Fatih Turan, Director General of Environmental Management, pointed out that the millions of tons of debris that emerged after the earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş on February 6 were not homogeneous. Referring to the importance of striving to make these wastes reusable, Turan stated that UNDP and Japan provided support for the recovery of construction and demolition wastes with mobile crushers in Hatay and Kahramanmaraş with a grant of 4.8 million dollars within the scope of the Environmentally Friendly Debris Recycling Project in Türkiye.
After the Tohoku Earthquake, facilities were established in debris management that brought Japan's best practices to the region.
The project was funded by Japan and established facilities that brought Japan's best practices to the region in debris management, especially after the Tohoku Earthquake. In the new facilities, the debris will be phased in and the hazardous waste will be separated, and the remaining debris will be crushed for use in the production of backfill material for asphalt roads and paving stones.
