The delegation concluded a 2 day visit to Mersin, Hatay and Kahramanmaraş, meeting with Mayors of Mersin and Kahramanmaraş Metropolitan Municipalities to express sympathy and solidarity and to learn the situation in order to plan further support.
Two earthquakes of 7.7 and 7.6 magnitute hit southern Türkiye on 6 February2023, caused massive destruction in 11 provinces. The epicentre of the earthquakes was located in Kahramanmaraş and affected the neighbouring cities of Hatay, Adıyaman, Elazığ, Gaziantep, Kilis, Osmaniye, Malatya, Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa and Adana where more than 15 million people live, including more than 1.5 million Syrians under temporary protection.
While more than half a million buildings, communication and energy infrastructure was damaged, more than 50 thousand death have been reported so far, the numbers continue to increase.
RESLOG Türkiye, together with the SALAR International team, visited Mersin, Hatay and Kahramanmaraş to offer condolence, show solidarity and plan the future work that can be carried out in order to support the local governments.
RESLOG Türkiye National Project Manager Sinan Özden stated that since 2018, they have been working to increase the resilience of local governments in the face of crises, first it was migration and then the pandemic, and added that the importance of the resilience of local governments and the continuity of service flow once again came to the fore with the earthquake. He highlighted that RESLOG adopts a resilience concept that focuses on responding the crises, recovering from it and continuing to thrive and underlined that their support to the affected municipalities will continue in their resilience efforts.
SALAR International Managing Director Ryan Knox reminded the long-term cooperation between the Union of Municipalities of Turkey and SALAR International and explained the purpose of their visit as they are trying to see if their work on resilience planning with local authorities can lend itself to sort of thinking of medium and long-term recovery. He stated that as SALAR International, they will continue to seek ways to provide best possible support to Turkish partners and their member municipalities.
RESLOG Türkiye and SALAR International’s earthquake response to be shaped within the framework of mid-term recovery and sustainable development and the efforts will focus on regaining urban functionality.
