The devastating February 6 earthquake and aftershocks that hit southern Turkey have caused damage worth more than $34 billion in the country, the World Bank said.
The amount is equivalent to four percent of Turkey’s GDP in 2021, the Washington-based institution said on Monday (local time), adding that the estimate does not account for the costs of reconstruction that were “potentially twice as large,” a statement said.
The estimate also does not take into account the damage caused in northern Syria, also particularly affected by the earthquakes, with a World Bank estimate of the costs there to be released on Tuesday.
The World Bank warned that the continuing aftershocks are likely to increase the total amount of damage caused by the disaster.
“This disaster serves as a reminder of Turkey’s high risk to earthquakes and of the need to enhance resilience in public and private infrastructure,” said Humberto Lopez, the World Bank Country Director for Turkey.
The World Bank also estimates that 1.25 million people have been made temporarily homeless due to damage to residential buildings.
It added that direct damage to residential buildings accounted for 53 percent of the estimate, with 28 percent of damage seen in non-residential buildings and the rest in infrastructure such as roads and bridges.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday asked for forgiveness over rescue delays while visiting one of the areas hit hardest by the deadly earthquake earlier this month.
Erdogan, who is seeking another term as president after two decades in power, has received strong criticism from earthquake survivors in Adiyaman in the southeast.
In the last election in 2018, Erdogan handily beat his secular opposition rival in that province.
“Due to the devastating effect of the tremors and the bad weather, we were not able to work the way we wanted in Adiyaman for the first few days. I apologise for this,” Erdogan said.
The February 6 quake killed more then 44,000 people in Turkey and thousands more in neighbouring Syria.
AFP reported the locals’ fury with the government from Adiyaman on February 10.
“I did not see anyone until 2:00 pm on the second day of the earthquake,” Adiyaman resident Mehmet Yildirim told AFP at the time.
“No government, no state, no police, no soldiers. Shame on you! You left us on our own.”
The catastrophe struck just as Erdogan was gaining momentum and starting to lift his approval numbers from a low suffered during a dire economic crisis that exploded last year.
Shortly after the quake, Erdogan had admitted “shortcomings” in the government’s handling of the disaster.
Source: AFP
