2023-Turkish-Earthquake
Two major earthquakes struck southwestern Turkiye on the 6th February 2023, with damage spreading across the region and into northwestern Syria. Two useful documents are included below, these being customised versions of the TorqAid Global Humanitarian & Development Bibliography & a separate Global Humanitarian & Development Agency Directory (see two links below).
Download DownloadThe key source in the Agency Directory is ReliefWeb, which is managed by OCHA. Reports from multiple agencies are covered in ReliefWeb, but the most useful to initially track are the OCHA Flash Reports for both Turkiye and northwest Syria as a whole, as well as separate ones by the OCHA Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) for the Syrian Arab Republic. ACAPS also have produced some exceptionally useful material, this including an initial Briefing Note on the 7th Feb; profiles of affected provinces/governorates in Turkiye & Syria (13th Feb); and on the 17th Feb, an Anticipatory Note on what to watch over the coming month.
The two customised news services cited (in the Agency Directory) are the BBC and Al-Jazeera. The Bibliography highlights two useful publications by ALNAP, and one by the DEC, which together provide a synthesis of lessons learnt from previous major earthquake events. Also included in the Bibliography is the the TorqAid DRM Diagrammatic Framework (discussed below).
The Disaster Risk Management Cycle (DRMC) diagram is one of four key illustrations highlighted in the article ‘A DRM Diagrammatic Framework’ – see link below – see link below.
DownloadThe DRMC clearly highlights the key initiatives likely to take place over the coming weeks and months relating to the Turkish earthquakes. The situation will be complicated by the challenging security situation in Northwest Syria; cross-border issues; and challenges relating to geography, climate and logistics. A detailed overview of these complexities is covered in the above-mentioned ACAPS article of the 17th Feb. In the remaining Emergency Response Stage the priorities will be:
- Search & Rescue (SAR) and burying the dead – now largely completed
- Establishing essental services and clearing and maintaining logistical routes
- Leadership, management, coordination, communications and information sharing
- Vulnerable groups protection and provision of humanitarian assistance. The latter includes Shelter, Heating and Non-Food Tems (NFIs); Health & Nutrition; Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH); Food; Education; and Early Recovery & Livelihoods
- Initial damage and needs assesment
Whilst during February there was extensive media coverage, this has begun to decline (at least in the international news) during March, a fact which could influence or determine future levels of medium to long term financial assistance, particularly for the Recovery Stage.
As the humanitarian situation moves into the Recovery Stage, the following will ideally be the main priorities. The complexities of these are covered in detail in the ACAPS article of the 17th Feb:
- Ongoing leadership, management, coordination, communications and information sharing
- Ongoing vulnerable groups protection and provision of humanitarian assistance
- Clearing of rubble/debris, and more detailed damage and needs assessments
- Temporary accomodation and repair/rebuilding of houses and other key buildings
- Psychosocial support and restoration of the social enviroment
- Restoration of the economic, built & natural environments
- Monitoring & evaluation, and possibly special commissions of inquiry. The latter are likely to include the apparent failure to fully implement stricter building codes, introduced after the 1999 Izmit earthquake
- Ideally a range of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) intitatives to create more resilient communities and structures
TorqAid is currently modifying its Participatory Disaster Risk Management (PDRM) program to include the Turkish earthquakes as one of its main complex emergency case studies – see the link below for the PDRM training program.
Download
