Wilfried Devillers (in Turkey), edited by Laura Laplaud
Almost two weeks after the earthquake in Turkey, a humanitarian crisis is looming. Millions of people, now homeless, are forced to live in emergency camps. Sometimes without running water and in a proximity conducive to epidemics. Europe 1 went to refugee camps.
The latest death toll from the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria now exceeds 44,000. The worst natural disaster in a century, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Displaced populations live in often deplorable sanitary conditions conducive to the development of epidemics.
Basic living conditions
There, a volunteer nurse tells Eileen that she has scabies. She lives with the six members of her family in a tent of about twenty square meters, in particularly basic living conditions. “The bathrooms are very dirty, there is no running water, no electricity. It is very difficult to find water to wash. We also need towels. Living in these tents, it’s hell”, she confides at the microphone of Europe 1.
Lack of access to care
In the only two prefabs in the camp that serve as toilets, waste is strewn on the ground. For a doctor present in this camp, the situation is conducive to the development of diseases, even if there is no severe epidemic in the camps. “Cases of diarrhea have increased due to poor sanitation. And as it is winter, many people use wood stoves in tents, many people develop asthma and lung diseases,” says he.
Lack of access to healthcare is also a major problem in the regions hardest hit by the earthquake. As for this mother whose son developed an infection in the lower abdomen in the Antioch camp. She has to travel 40 kilometers to find the bandages and medication needed to treat him.