22 Days After The Disaster: Turkey Begins The First Steps Of Reconstruction

Turkey has allowed companies, institutions, charitable organizations and individuals to help in the urgent task of building homes for the millions of affected people, in conjunction with conducting the first land testing operations on which new buildings will be erected, while the work of removing rubble and examining damaged buildings continued in full swing in the 11 states affected by the February 6 seismic disaster.

Building donation
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree published in the Official Gazette on Friday, which included new rules on rebuilding earthquake-damaged areas, allowing companies, foundations, charitable organizations and individuals to help with the urgent task of building new homes for the millions who need alternative housing after the disaster.
Under the new regulations included in the presidential decree, individuals, companies, institutions and organizations will be able to build housing and workplaces and donate them to the Ministry of Development, Urban Development and Urbanization. It will then be handed over to those in need.
Erdogan announced, on Tuesday, that the government would start building homes for 270,000 families in cities and rural areas in the 11 states, starting next March.
Erdogan pledged to rebuild the homes within a year, but experts and specialists warned against haste, calling for the safety standard to be taken into consideration before speed. Some buildings that were supposed to withstand strong earthquakes collapsed in the February 6 earthquakes.
And the United Nations Development Program announced, on Friday, that it will support the work to remove the rubble caused by the earthquake disaster, pointing out that the United Nations directed on February 16 an appeal to raise one billion dollars in order to support Turkey after the disaster, and that a large part of the required 113.5 million dollars will be allocated in International Assistance Appeal Framework, for rubble removal work.
The program stated, in a statement, that it aims to implement an environmentally friendly approach to support the government’s actions regarding the removal of rubble, and that it is planned to recycle the raw materials in the rubble instead of removing the rubble and dumping it elsewhere. The program also aims to create job opportunities for the local population by employing them to remove and treat rubble.

– aid
In terms of aid in the earthquake-affected areas, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that countries rushed to Turkey's aid following the earthquake disaster, and set up 31 field hospitals in the areas affected by the disaster.
The ministry said, in a statement on its Twitter account, that field hospitals were established in areas affected by the earthquake by 28 countries. Regarding other aid that was delivered to Turkey in coordination with its foreign representations, the ministry pointed out the arrival of 109,574 tents, 246 prefabricated houses, 1,499,207 blankets, and 211,839 sleeping bags.
She added that 26,622 electricity generators, 5,928 tons of clothing, 5,746 tons of food, and other aid had also arrived.
The spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Stephane Dujarric, announced that 53 trucks crossed from southern Turkey to northwestern Syria, carrying aid from the World Food Program, the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Dujarric said that of the 53 trucks that crossed on Thursday, 47 passed through Bab al-Hawa, and 6 passed through Bab al-Salam, noting that 27 percent of the urgent appeal for Syria, amounting to about $400 million, was funded.
The number of UN trucks that have crossed the Syrian border crossings has reached 335 since February 9.