Bolu leads in quake insurance rate

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

İbrahim Özçimen (C), the governor of Bolu, receives an award from Deputy PM Ali Babacan (L) at a ceremony regarding earthquake insurance for houses. AA photo

The northwestern province of Bolu registered the highest rate of houses covered by earthquake insurance in a competition held by the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (DASK).

The competition was a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of earthquake insurance. Bolu, with a 46 percent insurance rate, is followed by the western provinces of Yalova at 42 percent and Düzce at 40 percent.

The rate of insured houses in the earthquake-stricken eastern province of Van has climbed to 19 percent from 10 percent before the disaster in November, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said yesterday at the meeting where the results of the competition were revealed.

DASK paid out some 61 million Turkish Liras to residents of Van whose insured houses were damaged, Babacan said, adding that the figure could go up to 80 million liras soon.

DASK was founded in 2000, in the aftermath of the Marmara earthquake of Aug. 19, 1999.