360,000 citizens still living in containers

On Monday, February 6, two earthquakes a magnitude 7.7 striking Kahramanmaraş at 04:17 and a magnitude 7.6 centered in Elbistan later that day impacted 11 provinces in Türkiye. At least 62,013 people lost their lives in the two massive earthquakes, including 53,537 in Türkiye and 8,746 in Syria. More than 130,000 people were injured.

Three years have passed since the earthquakes, yet life in these cities has not returned to normal. Many citizens are still continuing their lives in container cities.

360,000 citizens still in containers

According to the "Kahramanmaraş and Hatay Earthquakes Reconstruction and Development Report" published by the Presidency’s Strategy and Budget Directorate on the third anniversary of the disaster, 360,000 citizens in the earthquake zone are still living in containers. Half of this number, 156,000, is in Hatay. Following Hatay, 67,664 people in Malatya and 55,264 citizens in Maraş continue their lives in container cities.

Although the government announced that 450,000 TOKİ (Housing Development Administration) units had been delivered as of December 27, the Presidency’s Strategy and Budget Directorate report indicates that housing lotteries have been completed for a total of 433,667 residences and 21,690 workplaces. However, many of the housing units where keys have been delivered are far from meeting vital needs due to inadequate infrastructure.

According to a report by Nisa Su Demirel from Evrensel, there has been no "return to normal" regarding basic needs in addition to the housing requirement:

"The most basic needs, drinking water and sewage services, have not been restored either. Only 25 billion TL of the 105 billion TL investment gathered for these services has been utilized. One of the leading problems since the first day of the earthquake has been communication infrastructure. However, the situation is the same there. While the total investment needed for communication is 3,843,991,064 TL, according to the report, only 581,684,261 TL has been invested in communication infrastructure. In contrast, the amount allocated for mining activities in the region is higher than the amount allocated for communication infrastructure. According to the report, there are 732 licensed mine operations in the region. A total of 667 million TL has been spent on mines, including 637 million TL by TPAO in Adıyaman, and post-earthquake expenditures by MTA of 17.4 million TL in Malatya, 2.9 million TL in Gaziantep, 196,000 TL in Adıyaman, 593,000 TL in Hatay, and 8.7 million TL in other provinces."