According to a summary calculation by the World Bank, the UN, the European Union and the Turkish government, and therefore by nature still provisional, the material damage caused by the earthquake in Turkey alone “exceeds 100 billion dollars “. A month after the tragedy, the toll of the earthquake, which also affected Syria, crossed the 50,000 dead mark.
The material damage caused by the earthquake in Turkey alone “exceeds 100 billion dollars”, according to a summary calculation by the World Bank, the UN, the European Union and the Turkish government. A month after the earthquake, which killed more than 46,000 people on the Turkish side, “it is already clear that the material damage alone will amount to more than 100 billion dollars”, declared Louisa Vinton, person in charge for Turkey of the Program of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) via video conference from Gaziantep during a regular UN briefing in Geneva.
Estimates based on provisional data
“The reconstruction costs and everything that will have to do with building back better and building back greener will obviously still exceed this amount,” said Louisa Vinton. These estimates are still based on provisional data, but the amount of 100 billion in damage will be that presented to a Donor Conference to help with reconstruction to be held on March 16 in Brussels, said Louisa Vinton. Faced with these huge amounts, Louisa Vinton said her “disappointment and sadness” at the lack of generosity of donors. Currently, the $1 billion emergency appeal launched on February 16 is only 9.6 percent covered, she said.
The February 6 quake of magnitude 7.8, followed by another nine hours later of magnitude 7.6, killed nearly 46,000 people and injured 105,000 in Turkey, according to non-final reports. It also destroyed or condemned 214,000 buildings, sometimes more than 10 stories high, in 11 of Turkey’s 81 provinces. Nearly 6,000 people also lost their lives in Syria, according to the authorities.