Civil engineers on Wednesday, February 15, called on the state to subsidize the anti-seismic modernization of buildings after the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
The Association of Structural Engineers (Spolmik) also released a video showing the dilapidation of buildings on the island, which includes footage of several balconies collapsing last year when there were no earthquakes or bad weather.
Spolmik, in an accompanying statement, expressed “deep concern about the critical and dangerous point reached by the aging building stock in Cyprus and the risk of loss of life.”
Association members called on the state to subsidize the anti-seismic modernization of buildings and immediately establish legislative norms for building inspections and the issuance of inspection certificates.
Similar calls were made by Etek’s technical chamber after the recent earthquake.
“After all, time is running out, procrastination must end and decisions must be made immediately,” the House said last week.
Cyprus introduced anti-seismic regulations for buildings around 1994. According to the government, there are over 400,000 residential buildings and over 30,000 non-residential buildings on the island. Nearly half of residential buildings are single-family homes.