ANKARA (Xinhua) – Hit by devastating earthquakes in early February, Turkey now faces environmental challenges on the disposal of the waste and rubble left over from the destroyed buildings and roads.
Two massive earthquakes destroyed cities on large swaths of land in southern Turkey on Feb. 6, killing nearly 51,000 people.
Referred to as “the disaster of the century” by the Turkish government, the catastrophe caused some 227,000 buildings to collapse or sustain heavy damage, according to data from the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to rebuild new homes for the millions of people affected by the disaster within a year.
In the cities ravaged by the tremors, where reconstruction is currently underway, workers had started to clear a staggering amount of rubble about two weeks after the disaster.
“In my city Kahramanmaras, there are literally mountains of rubble in the open, and it’s causing a serious problem,” said Durmus Sezgin, a resident and civil engineer from Kahramanmaras, one of the places hit hardest by the February earthquakes.
He said that hundreds of excavators are working round the clock, kicking up plumes of dust while sifting through the wreckage, demolishing any remaining building that local authorities considered unfit for habitation.
The rubble that has been stored in temporary dumps have raised concerns about pollution from different chemicals such as asbestos, a cancer-causing fiber used in the past as insulation material, but now banned in most countries, including Turkey, said Sezgin.
“People have been breathing dust from the rubbles in the dumps continuously, and they are worried about being exposed to hazardous chemicals, lead, and microplastics,” said Selim, a doctor from quake-hit city of Hatay who wishes to be identified by his given name.
Responding to criticism, Deputy Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Mehmet Emin Birpinar tweeted on April 27 that dust suppression systems were being used to stop the spread of potentially hazardous materials like asbestos.