“This clearly makes this the largest earthquake disaster in the history of Türkiye and perhaps the greatest natural disaster the country has ever experienced‘ said Louisa Vinton of the UN Development Program (UNDP) representative of the Türkiye.
Two more earthquakes measuring 6.4 and 5.8 on the Richter scale killed six others on the Türkiye-Syria border on Monday. “Another 294 people were injured and some other buildings collapsed in the Hatay region and some on the Mediterranean coast,” the UNDP official continued.
The lifeline of the Syria aid continues
International humanitarian aid continued in north-west Syria, where up to nine million people were affected and at least 6,000 were killed. A total of 227 trucks loaded with supplies crossed from Türkiye since February 9; 195 via Bab al-Hawa junction, 22 via Bab al-Salam and 10 via Al Ra’ee.
Speaking to journalists via video link from Gaziantep in the south of Türkiye, Dr. Catherine Smallwood, Earthquake Incidents Manager at the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) in Europe noted that the agency had transported “near by 100 tons beyond Türkiye border” since the disaster, in addition to supplies already pre-positioned in Syria.
UN agencies are transporting earthquake relief supplies from Türkiye to north-west Syria.
Mobile medical solutions
These shipments included essential medicines, consumables, anesthetics, surgical equipment and other medical supplies for an additional 40,000 to 49,000 procedures for those in need of surgical assistance or medical assistance for earthquake-related injuries.
The WHO official added that 55 medical facilities had been damaged and several “completely destroyed,” but not that six mobile clinics had been relocated to the towns and communities around Jindires, one of the hardest-hit areas in north-western Syria.
“These are itinerant clinics that provide support, support and medical services directly to the population,” explained Dr. Smallwood.
Residents who survived the earthquake are left behind extremely cold temperatures without drinking water, Electricity or fuel for heatingand are exposed danger of crumbling buildings as they try to take shelter, warned the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).
Progress of cross-line aid
Potentially positive news also surfaced cross-line aid deliveries from Damascus to Idlib, which is largely controlled by opposition forces and where 4.1 million people depend almost entirely on humanitarian aid after well over a decade of war in Syria.
“On Sunday February 19 and Monday February 20, three Syrian Arab Red Crescent humanitarian aid convoys crossed Sheikh Maqsood, a non-government controlled area north of Aleppo. So we are talking about border crossings here,” confirmed Tommaso Della Longa, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
wasteland
UNDP’s Louisa Vinton highlighted the astounding scale of the recovery challenge ahead and gave an estimate 116 to 210 million tons of rubble would have to be cleared first.
“To give you a frame of reference, the last major earthquake in Turkey in 1999, which also claimed a high number of casualties, although less than less than half of what we are seeing now, which resulted in 13 million tons of debris, ” She said.
In past disasters after earthquakes and explosions in Nepal, Haiti, Lebanon and also in Ukraine, UNDP has accompanied projects as a partner to ensure that rubble is disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. “Much of it can be reused for construction purposes and it can also be used to generate income in the short term,” explained Ms. Vinton.
