ABU DHABI, 7th March, 2023 (WAM) — A local newspaper has said that the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the Turkey-Syria border on 6th February changed millions of lives forever.
“Families were torn apart, children orphaned and thousands of people left to live with long-term physical and mental injuries. Homelessness and unemployment are now widespread after entire towns and cities, such as Antakya – once home to about 400,000 people – were left in ruins,” The National said in an editorial on Tuesday.
The editorial added, “As difficult as the situation is, however, almost 30 days after more than 51,000 people died in the first earthquake, the international news cycle has turned several times and the world is largely focused once more on other developments. This slow ebbing away of interest poses a very great threat to the survivors in Syria and Turkey.”
This week, The National reported that in north-west Syria, the World Bank estimates the cost of the earthquake will run to $5.1 billion in direct physical damages alone. The Bank also reported that the damage in Turkey was equivalent to 4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Aside from the immediate need to provide survivors with food and shelter – itself a mammoth task – there must be a series of long-term aid commitments.
In the medium-term there also needs to be support for the health authorities in both countries to stave off the risk of disease. Last week, UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths told the Security Council that north-west Syria faced the growing threat of a cholera epidemic. Getting vaccines to those already struggling to survive is itself a major challenge.
“But the initial response to the earthquakes was promising, with many countries sending rescue teams and supplies as the public donated in the millions. That spirit, however, has to continue,” the daily continued.
This week, President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan made a surprise visit to the Bridges of Goodness campaign collection centre in Abu Dhabi, where volunteers and Emirates Red Crescent employees are still gathering and assembling relief supplies.
As part of the UAE's humanitarian mission to help the quake-hit countries, it has sent almost 200 relief flights so far and delivered more than 5,500 tonnes of aid. An army of volunteers in the Emirates have also lent a vital hand to the continuing relief effort.
Some of the injured in Syria have been flown to Abu Dhabi for treatment, while the UAE set up a field hospital almost immediately after the disaster struck.
All this follows an outpouring of support from the different communities who make up the UAE, such as the thousands of people who have already come forward to pack aid at events in the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre and Expo City Dubai.
“However, for the people of Gaziantep, Idlib and hundreds of other cities, towns and villages in the affected area, a month is barely enough time to even begin processing the tragedy that has befallen them. Other anniversaries of the earthquake will come and go but to really help the survivors in Syria and Turkey, we will all need to be in it for the long-haul,” the Abu Dhabi-based daily concluded.