1.5 million people now homeless in Türkiye after earthquake disaster, warn UN development experts
“This is clearly the largest earthquake disaster in the history of Türkiye and Probably the biggest natural disaster the country has ever faced,” Louisa Vinton, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Türkiye resident representative.
The next two earthquakes measuring 6.4 and 5.8 on the Richter scale killed six more people on the Türkiye-Syrian border on Monday, with “294 others injured and several other buildings collapsing in the area.” areas around Hatay and some on the Mediterranean coast,” continued the UNDP official.
Continue to aid Syria
In northwest Syria, where up to 9 million people have been affected and at least 6,000 have died, international humanitarian work continues. A total of 227 trucks carrying supplies were overcome from Türkiye as of 9 February; 195 via Bab al-Hawa intersection, 22 via Bab al-Salam and 10 via Al Ra’ee.
Speaking to journalists via video link from Gaziantep in southern Türkiye, Dr Catherine Smallwood, UN World Health Organization Earthquake Incident manager (WHO) in Europe, noting that the agency shipped “nearly 100 tons across the border from Türkiye” since the disaster, in addition to supplies already arranged in Syria.
UN agencies are transporting earthquake relief items from Türkiye to northwestern Syria.
Mobile medical solutions
These supplies include essential drugs, consumables, anesthetics, surgical equipment, and other medical supplies for an additional 40,000 to 49,000 interventions for those in need of surgical support. or medical assistance for specific earthquake injuries.
The WHO official added that 55 health facilities were damaged and some were “completely destroyed”, but six mobile clinics was redeployed to towns and communities around Jindires, one of the hardest hit areas in northwestern Syria.
Dr Smallwood explains: “These are roaming clinics that provide direct medical assistance, support and services to people.
The residents who survived the earthquake were left in extremely cold temperature don’t drink water, electricity, or fuel for heatingand be exposed to danger of dilapidated building as they try to find shelter, warning United Nations Economic and Social Commission on West Asia (ESCWA).
Cross-line aid progress
Potentially positive news also appears regarding cross-line aid delivery from Damascus to Idlib, which is largely controlled by armed opposition 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 20, three humanitarian aid convoys of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent arrived at Sheikh Maqsood, an NGO-controlled area north of Aleppo. And so we’re talking about diagonal boundaries here,” confirmed Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
waste land
Highlighting the incredible scale of the reconstruction challenge ahead, UNDP’s Louisa Vinton explains the estimate 116 to 210 million tons of crushed stone will have to be deleted first.
“To give you a frame of reference, the last major earthquake in Turkey, in 1999, also had a high number of casualties, although less than half of what we are seeing today. , resulting in 13 million tons of rubble,” she said.
In previous disasters following earthquakes and explosions in Nepal, Haiti, Lebanon and also Ukraine, UNDP has worked with projects to ensure that debris is disposed of in an environmentally safe manner. . “Much of it can be recycled for construction and it can also be used as a way of generating short-term income,” explains Ms.
