The rebuilding phrase must be taken seriously for the best future Photo Hasina Gori
Turkey – It has now been nine days since the deadly Turkey-Syria earthquake. The rescue phase is slowly coming to an end with more focus being put on providing temporary shelter, food and schooling. After that, the rebuild phase, one of the most important phases, will begin. If the countries are to recover, this phase needs to be taken seriously.
Natural disasters are not uncommon throughout the world. However, there are not many which cause such extreme damage and loss of life. For those impacted by the earthquake, it might be hard to imagine a better future after so much destruction has occurred. This is a time for the country to rebuild these places and rebuild them better.
Sichuan earthquake
On May 12, 2008, the world was stunned by the news of an 8-magnitude massive earthquake that struck Wenchuan of Sichuan Province. Just like Turkey, 10 provinces were affected. Official estimates put the number of affected people at 46.25 million. General infrastructure was overwhelmingly damaged with water, electricity and gas systems largely paralyzed. Schools, medical institutions and transportation facilities were devastated in a region that was already among the poorest and most vulnerable in China. However, just four years on, the region was significantly improved.
Speed and efficiency with which the Chinese government was able to mobilise government agencies, the private sector and their population was the reason for their success. In two years 99% of the 41,130 projects for reconstruction and rehabilitation were completed. China used an innovative method to get this all done so quickly.
The method was simple. The Central Government paired up each affected county with an unaffected province. The province then worked to provide financial and technical assistance in rebuilding the county. It also created campaigns to raise awareness of the devastation caused which allowed the public sector to participate in the rebuilding. All in all, they managed to raise $146 billion to help the 10 provinces that were decimated.
Furthermore, China took this opportunity to rebuild from scratch. They reconstruct all public-service facilities in the affected areas with high seismic standards and modern equipment. A lesson Turkey can learn from as many in the country feel the high loss of life could have been prevented if buildings were built up to code.
Building back stronger, faster and more inclusively
The report, Building Back Better: Achieving resilience through stronger, faster and more inclusive post-disaster reconstruction, explains there are three main stages to recover; humanitarian relief, restoration of basic services and the reconstruction phase. The report goes into great detail about how building back stronger, faster and more inclusively can save countries millions of dollars every year.
It is all about ensuring the rebuild happens at a fast rate with the future in mind. Turkey is situated along a fault line. It is therefore in their best interest to ensure the rebuild takes into account this problem. Earthquakes can happen again in the area and most likely will. Building strong, resilient buildings quickly will ensure a heavy loss on the economy is not suffered and this tragic event will not be repeated.
For Turkey, building back faster is essential. Sitting on a fault line means another earthquake can occur at any time. It may not be as strong but it can happen. According to the report, if another disaster happens while services are not fully functional, it can cause the country to stagnate. It will be dealing with two disasters before it even has time to recover from the first.
Poor governance can be very costly
On January 12 2010 a magnitude 7 earthquake hit Haiti leaving 300 000 dead. Many humanitarian agencies rushed into action to help those in the country. Unfortunately, Haiti was severely underprepared. Despite billions of dollars being pumped into the country, by 2021 when the next major earthquake occurred, it had not recovered from the first.
Poor governance has been blamed for this. The succession of unstable governments over the past years has done little to help the situation. Weak leadership at the time ensured that NGOs who were on the ground after the earthquake were disorganised. Weak leadership along with Hurricane Matthew that struck the country in 2016 is one of the many reasons Haiti has been unable to recover.
Turkey needs to take lessons from China and other nations that have successfully recovered after a natural disaster. If it is not careful, it could end up stagnating like Haiti. Experiencing disaster after disaster with no ability to recover.
