Status: 02/12/2023 09:06 a.m
Almost a week after the tremors in Turkey and Syria, the risk of epidemics is growing in the disaster area. The death toll rose to over 28,000 and millions of people lost their homes. Survivors are still being found.
Six days after the devastating earthquakes, the risk of disease is increasing in the affected regions of Syria and Turkey. “In the regions where people have no access to clean drinking water, there is a risk of epidemics at some point,” said Thomas Geiner, a doctor with earthquake experience and part of the team of disaster relief workers from the Navis association of the dpa news agency.
“The art of the next few days will be to bring help to where it is needed.” Given the size of the region, however, it is almost impossible to provide the necessary infrastructure everywhere. The affected areas are larger than Germany.
Germs can get into the groundwater
Water could be contaminated by the many unrecovered corpses. In many places there is no access to any type of toilet. This could also cause germs to get into the groundwater. Geiner said the situation on the ground reminded him of what happened in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. The region saw every injury imaginable. The health infrastructure is severely damaged.
The number of dead in the earthquake region is now officially more than 28,000 people. In Turkey alone, the death toll rose to 24,617. 3,574 deaths were recently reported from Syria. Since the number of missing persons is still very high, it is to be feared that the number of victims will increase drastically.
In the Turkish province of Hatay, helpers were still able to find survivors.
More survivors recovered
However, survivors are still being recovered almost a week after the earthquake. A seven-month-old baby was rescued from the rubble in south-eastern Turkey. The helpers were able to rescue the boy alive from the rubble in Hatay province after 140 hours, as reported by the state broadcaster TRT. They had heard the child crying and had thus become aware of it.
A 35-year-old was rescued from under the rubble in the morning after 149 hours, according to the broadcaster in the same province. A six-year-old boy was also rescued in Antakya after being buried under rubble for 137 hours, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.
WHO calls for expansion of Syria aid
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), aid for the earthquake victims in Syria must be significantly expanded. “We need to act with more urgency, on a larger scale, and to organize better,” said Richard Brennan, WHO emergency response coordinator for the Eastern Mediterranean region.
The number of dead and injured is immense, but what is often neglected is the large number of homeless people. According to initial estimates, around 200,000 people have lost their roof over their heads in Aleppo alone in the government-controlled part of northwestern Syria, and another 140,000 in the port city of Latakia, said Iman Shankiti, WHO representative in Syria. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that up to 5.3 million people in Syria have been made homeless by the earthquake.
More than 1.5 million people in Turkey without a home
According to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, more than 1.5 million people are now seeking shelter in tents, hotels or public emergency shelters in Turkey. In addition, the school holidays have been extended and universities are switching to distance learning for the time being – student dormitories are also to be made available as accommodation for survivors.
The Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu had criticized the school closures on Saturday. Young people have suffered enough in the corona pandemic, he wrote on Twitter.
Twelve arrests in Turkey
There were also several arrests in Turkey. After the collapse of thousands of buildings, the police arrested around twelve people suspected of being responsible. This included several contractors from the provinces of Gaziantep and Sanliurfa, as reported by the Turkish news agency DHA. As Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay announced on Saturday evening, a total of 113 arrest warrants were issued.
Many people blame the poor construction quality for the collapse of buildings in the Turkish provinces. Turkey’s Justice Ministry ordered prosecutors in the ten affected provinces to set up special offices to investigate “offences related to the earthquake.”
Corruption and botched construction as a possible cause for many collapsed houses in the earthquake area
Gabriele Dunkel, ARD Istanbul, daily topics 11:15 p.m., February 11, 2023