Around 1.5 million people are homeless after the earthquake in Turkey

While the death toll from the February 6 seismic catastrophe exceeds 41,000 in Turkey, they declared on Tuesday that 1.5 million people have been left homeless in the south of the country, where it will be necessary to build at least 500,000 new households.

“This clearly makes it the biggest seismic catastrophe in Turkey’s history and perhaps the biggest natural disaster the country has ever faced“said the resident representative in Turkey of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Louisa Vinton.

Two other earthquakes measuring 6.4 and 5.8 on the Richter scale killed six more on the Turkey-Syria border on Monday. “Another 294 people were injured and some buildings collapsed in the Hatay region and on the Mediterranean coast,” added the UNDP official.

Aid to Syria continues

In northwestern Syria, where up to nine million people have been affected and at least 6,000 have died, the international humanitarian response has continued. A total of 227 truckloads of supplies have crossed from Turkey since February 9: 195 through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, 22 through Bab al-Salam and 10 through Al Ra’ee.

Speaking to reporters via videoconference from Gaziantep, in southern Turkey, the person in charge of seismic incidents at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Europe, Dr. Catherine Smallwood, noted that the agency had transported “close to 100 tons across the border from Turkey” since the disaster, in addition to supplies already stored in Syria.

mobile medical solutions

These supplies included essential medicines, consumables, anesthesia drugs, surgical equipment, and other medical supplies for an additional 40,000 to 49,000 procedures for people who need surgical or medical support for specific earthquake injuries.

The head of the UN agency added that 55 medical facilities have been damaged and several “completely destroyed”, but that they have been redeployed. six mobile clinics to the towns and communities around Jindires, one of the most affected areas in northwestern Syria.

“These are mobile clinics that provide medical support, assistance and services directly to populations,” Smallwood explained.

Residents who survived the earthquake are within extremely cold temperatures, no running water, electricity or fuel for heatingand are exposed to danger of collapsing buildings as they try to find shelter, warned the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

Progress in cross-border aid

Potentially positive news has also emerged in relation to the aid deliveries through the hotline from Damascus to Idlib, largely controlled by opposition armed forces and where 4.1 million people are almost entirely dependent on humanitarian aid, after more than a decade of war in Syria.

“On Sunday February 19 and Monday February 20, three humanitarian aid convoys from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent crossed into Sheikh Maqsood, a non-government controlled area north of Aleppo. Therefore, we are talking about crossed lines.” , confirmed the spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Tommaso Della Longa.

Wasteland

Louisa Vinton, from the Development Programme, highlighted the enormous magnitude of the reconstruction challenge and explained that it would first be necessary to withdraw between 116 and 210 million tons of debris.

“To give a frame of reference, the last big earthquake in Turkey, in 1999, which also had a high number of casualties, although less than half of what we are seeing now, resulted in 13 million tons of debris,” said.

In previous disasters following earthquakes and explosions in Nepal, Haiti, Lebanon and also Ukraine, UNDP has collaborated on projects to ensure that debris is treated in an environmentally safe manner. “Much of it can be recycled for construction and can also be used as a short-term way of generating income,” Vinton explained.