geneva: A United Nations Development Program (UNDP) official has estimated that 1.5 million people in Turkey have been left homeless by the recent earthquakes and that about 500,000 housing units in the country will have to be rebuilt. UNDP Turkey resident representative Luisa Vinton told an online press briefing on Tuesday that the country’s government had inspected about 70 percent of buildings affected by the quake. Of these, 412,000 housing units in 118,000 buildings have collapsed or need to be completely demolished.
He said the amount of debris that needs to be cleared is huge and that UNDP is trying to reduce the threat of hazardous waste, reports Xinhua news agency.
According to Vinton, two weeks after the first earthquake, there is reason to call it The biggest natural disaster in the history of Turkey,
He said the government concluded the search and rescue phase for the first quake on Sunday and the last survivor was pulled from the rubble nearly 300 hours after the quake.
WHO senior emergencies official Catherine Smallwood said at Tuesday’s press briefing that managing the risks of communicable diseases is critical now because many displaced people live in close quarters, sometimes with poor access to toilets and clean water.
“There is an increased risk of respiratory diseases, cholera, hepatitis A and measles,” she said.
In recent weeks, a series of earthquakes ranging in magnitude from 6.4 to 7.7 have struck Turkey’s southern Kahramanmaraş province.
The tremors were also felt in parts of Syria. According to media reports, an estimated 47,000 people have lost their lives in both the countries.