The United Nations announced that the catastrophic earthquake that struck Turkey last month had caused damages of over $100bn. Louisa Vinton from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) stated that recovery costs would add to the damages.
The 7.8-magnitude quake that hit on February 6, claimed the lives of over 45,000 people in Turkey. Due to same earth quake there were 5,000 deaths in Syria.
Despite the World Bank’s estimate of damage worth more than $34 billion in Turkey, Vinton claimed that with the support of the UNDP, the World Bank, and the European Union, the Turkish government had calculated far higher damage.
A recovery and reconstruction donor conference is going to happen in Brussels next week, based on this estimate. Vinton expressed disappointment at the low level of response to funding appeals so far, with a $1bn flash appeal funded at just 9.6% of the total.
