The excavator tore into the remnants of the broken constructing in southeast Turkey, bringing it crashing down right into a cloud of mud — the newest menace dealing with survivors of the lethal February quake that ravaged the area.
Extending to the horizon, a cocoon of high-quality gray mud envelops the town of Samandag within the south of Hatay province, devastated by the February 6 earthquake that killed greater than 55,000 folks and laid waste to elements of Turkey and Syria.
“We survived the earthquake but this dust will kill us,” Michel Atik, founder and president of the Samandag Environmental Protection Association, stated with a sigh.
“We are going to die of respiratory diseases and lung cancer with all these hazardous materials.”
Five months after the quake, the size of clean-up and reconstruction is gigantic, with the federal government estimating that just about 2.6 million buildings have been destroyed.
According to the UN Environment Programme, some 210 million tonnes of rubble should be disposed of.
By comparability, some 1.8 million tonnes of rubble needed to be hauled away after the September 11, 2001 assaults in New York City that introduced down the World Trade Center skyscrapers.
Environmental activists and native residents fear that within the rush to wash up and rebuild, essential security measures are being ignored, with probably opposed results on the well being of native residents, the surroundings and the financial system.
Landfills
The landfill close to Samandag is one among a number of which were arrange on this province bordering Syria. It lies subsequent to the Mediterranean and the Milleyha pure fowl reserve, which is pure fowl reserve, which is a nesting web site for endangered inexperienced sea turtles.
Another landfill, within the Antakya area, lies close to a valley of olive bushes on the foot of the Nur Mountains. With olive oil the first supply of revenue within the province, there are fears that the dump may hurt the bushes.
“They don’t even hose it down,” stated Cagdas Can, 33, an environmental activist with the Reconstruct group, as he watched vans crammed with particles depart Samandag towards the large open-air landfill that lies subsequent to one among Turkey’s longest seashores.
“There were other possible sites … But the companies that won the tenders [for clearing] chose here to save fuel. All they care about it recovering the iron and the metal. Nobody wears a mask. The demolition sites are not covered or hosed down and neither are the holds of the trucks, as required by law.”
Mr Can stated that his environmental organisation had tried to cease the vans by forming human chains, “but the police intervened”.
“Eighteen people were arrested and I had my collarbone broken,” he stated.
The exhausted native inhabitants, confronted with a myriad of issues after the quake, has not mobilised, he stated, however they’re as anxious because the conservationists concerning the impression of the clean-up.
Hidden hazards
“The children are the first to be affected, they cough a lot, so do we. As soon as it’s windy, everything is covered in dust,” stated Mithat Hoca, 64, who sells greens at a stall in central Samandag.
“We have to cover everything,” stated Mehmet Yazici, a 61-year-old retiree who handed by on a scooter. “We wipe the table 15 to 20 times a day. You have to do it every half-hour.”
Ali Kanatli, a physician in Antakya, some 26 kilometres away from Samandag, has already seen instances of “conjunctivitis, allergies, asthma, bronchitis”.
But above all, he worries concerning the long-term results, like a rise in cancers, that the hazardous supplies within the rubble and mud may trigger within the area.
Turkey didn’t ban asbestos till 2013 and many of the buildings affected by the quake are older, he stated.
“In addition to asbestos, we have lead in paint, heavy metals including mercury in electronic equipment such as televisions, household appliances,” he stated.
Originally revealed as Turkey quake survivors’ newest menace — mud
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
