İstanbul’s flash floods result of ecological devastation, Heavy showers over the weekend in the country's largest city brought on paralyzing flash floods, which have become increasingly common, and engineer Rezan Bulut claims they are the direct result of the destruction of nature to make way for development.
Bulut, who serves as the secretary of the İstanbul branch of the CChamber of Civil Engineers(İMO), explained by phone that the large number of construction projects throughout the city are the root cause of these floods, saying, “When a city has undergone this much construction and had all of its green spaces cleared out, we must expect to experience these types of problems.”
The heavy showers over the weekend in İstanbul led to serious flooding that hit Üsküdar and the centrally located neighborhood of Taksim especially hard. Roads and sidewalks in Üsküdar, which is situated on the Asian shores of the Bosporus Strait, were so flooded that they seemed to be one with the sea.
The driving rain led to flooding at the TEM highway's Hasdal junction as well, with many vehicles on the highway becoming trapped in floodwaters. Some passengers in vehicles waited to be rescued, while others tried to escape without assistance. In recent years, frequent flooding has caused serious damage to homes and vehicles in the metropolis that is home to 15 million people.