Six months ago, a massive earthquake destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings in Turkey. But the reconstruction promised by the government is progressing less quickly than planned.
Construction is progressing, but progress is slow. In the devastating earthquake exactly six months ago, more than 50,000 people died in Turkey and more than twice as many were injured.
Hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings collapsed or were so badly damaged that they had to be demolished. Damages in Turkey are estimated at more than 100 billion dollars.
Big promises
After all, according to government information, the equivalent of almost 17 billion euros will be spent this year on building new homes and repairing the infrastructure. The Turkish Ministry of Urban Development speaks of more than 300,000 new apartments in the worst affected earthquake areas.
About 20,000 of them are planned in so-called small village houses. However, most of them are in apartment buildings.
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is making big promises. At the beginning of July, he said: “Reconstruction is progressing in all eleven earthquake provinces. TOKI is playing a leading role in this. The buildings are being erected quickly, and the first will be ready for occupancy in the autumn. We want to build 319,000 new homes within the first year be 650,000 in the region.”
Before earthquakes, bungled construction was overlooked
TOKI is the state housing authority. Their large apartment buildings are considered safe. In fact, most of them suffered relatively little damage from the tremors at the beginning of February.
Others collapsed like houses of cards. A botched construction or non-compliance with building regulations often contributed to this. Erdogan himself ignored this at the time. Five years ago, he granted amnesty to sinners. Many of the houses they built have collapsed.
“No tolerance from now on”
All new ones should be earthquake-proof, says Environment and Urban Development Minister Mehmet Özhaseki:
Where there are fault lines, there will never be any construction. We won’t allow that. Where the soil is unsuitable, such as along creek beds, there will definitely be a ban on construction. And from now on there will be zero tolerance in construction.
expropriation plans cause problems
But reconstruction is not progressing as quickly as the government would like. In Hatay on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean, for example, soil investigations are already being carried out, but the construction of new houses has not really started yet.
Ownership is a problem. The state wants to build one- to two-family houses in the centers of the destroyed cities and new, larger houses only where it is safe. Land should be expropriated for this purpose. Owners object.
Many don’t want to move
In some places, on the other hand, it will not be possible to rebuild because the subsoil is not suitable. But many people really want to go back to where they were before the earthquake. In spite of everything. For Minister Özhaseki, this is a mountain of problems.
In front of those affected, he says: “In Hatay alone, around 294,000 buildings and apartments are badly damaged, have already been demolished or have to be demolished. If we say: Let’s bring all those affected to one place – where do you think that would be? Is there such a big one Territory? I’m afraid not. Also, people don’t want to leave the areas where they lived.”
Nevertheless, the reconstruction should soon pick up speed. After all, up to a dozen new orders have been put out to tender every day since the end of March.