Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 22nd Feb. UN development Programme experts said on Tuesday that 1.5 million people have been made homeless in the southern Turkiye where 500,000 new homes will need to be built, as the death toll hit 41,000 in Türkiye.
Louisa Vinton UNDP Türkiye Resident Representative said “This makes this clearly the largest earthquake disaster in Türkiye’s history and perhaps the largest natural disaster the country has ever faced,”
UNDP said that 2 earthquakes measuring 6.4 and 5.8 on the Richter Scale killed 6 more on the Türkiye-Syria border on Monday, with “294 people injured and another few buildings collapsed in the region around Hatay and some on the Mediterranean coast”.
In northwest Syria, over 9 million people have been affected, and at least 6,000 killed, the international humanitarian response has continued.
A total of 227 trucks loaded with supplies have crossed from Türkiye since 9 February; 195 using the Bab al-Hawa crossing, 22 across Bab al-Salam and 10 across Al Ra’ee.
Dr. Catherine Smallwood, Earthquake Incident manager for the WHO in Europe, noted that the agency had transported “close to 100 tonnes across the border from Türkiye” since the disaster, in addition to the supplies that were already pre-positioned within Syria.
These supplies included essential medicines, consumables, anaesthesia drugs, surgical equipment and other medical supplies for an additional 40,000 to 49,000 interventions for those in need of surgical support or medical support for earthquake-specific injuries.
He added that 55 medical facilities have been damaged and several “completely destroyed”, but that six mobile clinics had been redeployed to the towns and communities surrounding Jindires, one of the most affected areas in northwest Syria.
“These are roaming clinics that provide support, support and medical services directly to the populations,” Dr. Smallwood stated
UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia warned that residents who survived the earthquake are left in extremely cold temperatures without drinking water, electricity, or fuel for heating, and are exposed to the danger of crumbling buildings as they try to seek shelter.
The cross-line aid deliveries from Damascus into Idlib is open which is largely controlled by opposition armed forces and where 4.1 million people are dependent on humanitarian aid, after well over a decade of war in Syria.
Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said “On Sunday 19 February and Monday 20, three Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoys of humanitarian assistance crossed to Sheikh Maqsood, a non-government controlled area north of Aleppo. And so, we are speaking about cross lines here.
She highlighted the scale of the reconstruction challenge ahead, UNDP’s Louisa Vinton explained an estimated 116 to 210 million tonnes of rubble would have to be cleared away first.
“To give you a frame of reference, the last major earthquake in Turkey, in 1999, which also had a high number of casualties, although less than less than half of what we’re seeing now, that resulted in 13 million tonnes of rubble,” she said.
UNDP has partnered projects in past disasters after earthquakes and explosions in Nepal, Haiti, Lebanon, and also Ukraine to ensure that rubble is dealt with in an environmentally safe way.
“Much of it can be recycled for construction and it can also be used as a way of generating income short term,” Ms. Vinton concluded.
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