The Turkish government, swift in its response to repair the damage and rebuild the region impacted by last year's earthquakes, has allocated over TL 1 trillion ($32.78 billion) of this year's budget for the reconstruction of the provinces impacted by seismic activity.
One year after the country's deadliest natural disaster in its modern history, the focus of revitalization apart from building new housing units encompasses various sectors, from agriculture to tourism, where the funds will be allotted.
Powerful quakes on Feb. 6, 2023, in southern Türkiye killed more than 53,000 people in 11 provinces and left millions homeless.
The government mobilized all resources to heal the wounds following the earthquake and initial efforts to address the housing needs of the earthquake-affected families were made days after the tremors, later dubbed the "disaster of the century."
Within this framework, the victims received support for rent and relocation, and debts for electricity and natural gas were waived in the earthquake zone.
The first permanent housing units built away from the fault lines were erected, and institutions rushed to resolve the infrastructure issues such as fixing the damaged roads and railways, public buildings and repairing historical sites.
For this purpose, over TL 760 billion is said to have been allocated to the region throughout the last year. When local administrations, the Social Security Institution (SGK) and the Turkish Employment Agency (IŞKUR) efforts are included, the allocated funds amounted to TL 1 trillion.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his speech during a ceremony in which the keys were handed over for newly completed homes in Hatay on Saturday, reiterated what he said was the government's priority for the reconstruction of the earthquake zone.
"In the additional budget accepted by our Parliament in July, we allocated TL 762 billion of resources to be used in our cities in the earthquake zone. In this year's budget, we allocated more than TL 1 trillion for the reconstruction of our earthquake-affected provinces," he said.
During this period, many international institutions also provided financial support, aimed at the reconstruction of vital structures such as energy depots and revitalizing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the southeastern region.
The financing provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) amounted to 2.48 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in 2023, a new annual high, boosted by the lender's response in the wake of the disaster.
Similarly, the World Bank approved a credit of $1 billion to support the earthquake-ravaged region.
Now, as the focus shifts on further reviving various sectors in the region, this year's investments will span projects under different ministries aimed at facilitating reconstruction from transportation, agriculture and industry to education.
The financing of TL 11 billion is envisaged for repairing the damage to railways caused by the tremors, through efforts of the Turkish State Railways Directorate (TCDD).
The Ministry of Education is expected to realize projects worth TL 7.5 billion for constructing steel-structured schools in 11 provinces, while the Culture and Tourism Ministry has earmarked TL 1.4 billion for the maintenance, repair and environmental arrangement of cultural assets in the earthquake zone.
Among other highlighted investments is an allocation of TL 5 billion targeted for the industrial premises project in the earthquake zone, planned under the auspices of the Industry and Technology Ministry.
Accordingly, for the development efforts in the earthquake zone, a total of TL 1.02 trillion was allocated from the 2024 budget, while it is anticipated that this figure would exceed TL 3 trillion over four years.
