The February 6 earthquake and strong aftershocks killed nearly 47,000 people in Turkey, destroyed or damaged about 214,000 buildings, and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless – making it the worst disaster in Turkey’s modern history. The UN estimates the earthquake killed about 6,000 people in Syria, mostly in the rebel-held northwest.
About 2 million survivors have been moved to temporary housing or evacuated from the earthquake-ravaged area, according to Turkish government figures. About 1.5 million people have been housed in tents, while another 46,000 have been moved to container houses. Others live in dormitories and boarding houses, the government said.
“Given the number of people who have moved, the number of people injured and the magnitude of the devastation, we now have great humanitarian needs,” said Alvaro Rodriguez, the United Nations Residential Coordinator in Turkey. told The Associated Press.
“We have a number of provinces where up to 25% of the population – we are talking about half a million people – have moved. So the challenge we face is how to provide these communities with food, shelter and water.” he said.
The UN representative said tents are still necessary, even if they are not “the optimal solution” for protecting people. He reported some cases of scabies outbreaks due to poor sanitary conditions.
Last month, the UN made a flash appeal for $397.6 million to help Syrian earthquake victims and $1 billion for victims in Turkey to cover emergency needs such as food, protection, education, water and shelter for three months. Rodriguez said the call for Turkey is only funded at about 10 percent.
“The reality is that if we don’t go beyond the 10% or so that we have, the UN and its partners won’t be able to meet the humanitarian needs,” he said.
Rodriguez added: “Turkey is a country that has supported 4 million Syrian refugees in recent years, and this is an opportunity for the international community to provide the support Turkey deserves.”
The World Bank estimates that the earthquake caused an estimated $34.2 billion in direct physical damage – the equivalent of 4% of Turkey’s GDP in 2021. The World Bank said recovery and reconstruction costs will be much higher and GDP losses due to economic disruptions will also add to the cost of the earthquakes.
Faced with tough presidential and parliamentary elections in May, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pledged to rebuild hundreds of thousands of homes for earthquake survivors within a year.
More than 1.74 million refugees lived in the 11 Turkish provinces hit by the earthquakes, according to the UN Refugee Agency. Turkey’s interior minister said 4,267 of those killed in Turkey were Syrian nationals.
Rodriguez said about 40,000 Syrians in Turkey have returned home to check family or economic assets such as land or housing that may have been affected by the earthquake there.
