Two years after the quake

400,000 Turks are still living in containers

Two years after the earthquakes in Turkey, hundreds of thousands of people are still living in containers.(Bild: AP/Khalil Hamra)

Two years after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey, 400,000 people are still living in containers. According to the Turkish Chamber of Civil Engineers, they have regular water and electricity outages as well as poor hygiene conditions.

As reported, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6, 2023. This was followed a few hours later by a second earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6, affecting an area roughly the size of Greece. 53,737 people lost their lives and 107,213 were injured. Tens of thousands of buildings collapsed and even more were damaged. "The earthquakes had 2,000 times the force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima," announced the disaster control authority Afad.

Reconstruction still underway
Two years after the earthquakes, 182,000 workers are working on construction sites, according to government figures. 200,000 apartments or commercial units have been handed over so far. According to the Chamber of Civil Engineers, only 31 percent of the promised apartments have been built so far.

Work is also being carried out in containers.(Bild: AP/Khalil Hamra)

More than 53,000 people lost their lives in the natural disaster two years ago.(Bild: AP/Metin Yoksu)

Others criticize the speed with which the buildings are being erected. In order to build as quickly as possible, concrete mixing plants are being built close to shelters, exposing people to dust that is hazardous to their health, according to the Turkish Medical Association. Others fear that construction defects could be overlooked at this speed.

Construction defects are also blamed for the high number of victims in the earthquakes. 149 court cases have been concluded so far, and 189 defendants have been sentenced to prison and convicted. Almost 2000 further trials are still ongoing.

Next earthquake in Istanbul?
Experts believe that the earth around the metropolis of Istanbul could shake soon. The Kandilli earthquake monitoring station puts the probability of an earthquake with a magnitude of over 7 by 2030 at 60 percent. 100,000 buildings in Istanbul are at high risk of collapse.