UN estimates damage from Turkey earthquake will exceed $100bn

The United Nations has said, damage from the catastrophic earthquake that struck Türkiye and Syria last month has been estimated at over 100 billion dollars for Türkiye alone. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Türkiye Resident Representative, Louisa Vinton, further explained that recovery costs are yet to be added to that. Ms Vinton was talking to reporters virtually from Gaziantep in Turkey. The 7.8-magnitude quake, which struck Türkiye and Syria in early February, claimed over 50,000 lives. UN officials labeled the catastrophe as one of the worst events in 100 years in that region. 
Ms Vinton said, preliminary, it is clear from the calculations being done to date that the damage figure presented by the government and supported by the three international partners including, UNDP, the World Bank, and the European Union, will be in excess of 100 billion dollar. She said, once completed, this estimate will be the basis for a recovery and reconstruction donor conference in Brussels next week. She said, recovery costs, including efforts to build improved and more environmentally sustainable infrastructure, will exceed that amount. So far, she said, UNDP was “very disappointed and saddened” by the low level of response to funding appeals to date. A $1 billion flash appeal made on February 16 is currently funded at just 9.6% of the total, she said.