World

Turkey Earthquake One Year On: Survivors Still Living in Tent & Container Cities Amid Gov’t Infighting

When Turkish soldier Muslum Ozdemir died during a military operation in Iraq last month, a troubling back story emerged. He was from Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the twin earthquakes that claimed the lives of more than 50,000 people in nearly 10 provinces on 6 February last year, and survived the disaster himself.

Before long, media discovered that Ozdemir’s family, who lost their home in the quake, were still living in a tent nearly a year after the disaster. The Kahramanmaras governor’s office disputed the images. It insisted that none of the province’s displaced still had to live in tents: “We have given a container unit to every earthquake victim.”

Yet residents responded by saying that Ozdemir’s family resorted to the tent because the small container they were given to live in was at risk of being set ablaze whenever they tried to heat it. The whole incident was a reminder that the conditions in Turkey’s earthquake zone continue to be acute and are largely ignored by the media.

Several humanitarian workers and experts visited the area recently, and one after another warned that the container cities, built with good intentions, were miserable.

The units would leak water from the roof, or flood during heavy rain. There was mud all over the living spaces, and the danger of fire was very high, making everyone uncomfortable. Access to water is available but remains burdensome for many, while employment lingers as a wider question.

Yet you don’t hear much in Turkey about these conditions, or the people suffering in them. Their plight is largely absent in the local media. While that should be surprising, it isn’t. Just a month after the earthquakes, the disaster and its victims began to slip away from the public consciousness.

First, a crisis within the opposition alliance over who should run against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dominated the media in March. Then, the parliamentary and presidential elections took over in May. A new cabinet and new economic policy followed suit.

The earthquakes and their survivors were hardly seen – even on social media – when the landmark of three months came round.

It was a stark change from the 1999 earthquake that hit Izmit, 120km southeast of Istanbul, which killed nearly 19,000 people. The media coverage back then continued for at least a year, and people were reminded of the catastrophe over and over for years.

But today’s fast-paced media environment, which is also largely controlled by the government, consumes important topics and replaces them with another in a matter of hours.

Slow reconstruction

The earthquake toll is grim beyond the loss of life. The government says 227,000 buildings were destroyed or critically damaged, including historic churches, mosques, ancient sites, castles and other landmarks.

The government set up at least 215,000 temporary container homes in the disaster-hit provinces, hosting hundreds of thousands of earthquake victims. It has also provided rent aid to 349,000 households, and provided daily hot food and other services to more than four million people.

However, reconstruction efforts are going slower than expected. Erdogan himself promised in March that his government would build and deliver 319,000 residences to the victims in a year, pledging to construct a total of 650,000 in the future. 

His new environment and urbanization minister, Mehmet Ozhaseki, even went a step further, promising in September a total of 850,000 residences. Yet by this week, Erdogan had only been able to deliver 46,000 housing units in the earthquake zone, saying that his government will deliver 75,000 additional residences in Hatay alone in the next two months.

Click Here To Read More

Comments

Source
Zero Hedges

Related Articles

Back to top button