Nearly seven million housing units in Turkey awaiting renewal for earthquake, says Erdoğan

Photo: AA

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The government plans to build at least one-and-a-half million housing units in the quake-hit İzmir province over the next five years, President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.

Speaking at a meeting of his party, Erdoğan said the country currently has 1,000 container units in stock and is using those in the Aegean province to temporarily house victims of last week's quake.

"We will settle our citizens in those containers" while construction starts to replace housing that was destroyed, said Erdoğan.

Along with 114 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries, about 15,000 people have been left homeless after the 6.9 magnitude earthquake on October 30.

Saying that nationwide there are at least 6.7 million housing units awaiting renewal, he added that the area hit by last Friday's earthquake is a wetland.

"We have now reserved an area of 1.4 million square meters, belonging to agriculture and forest livestock, towards building residences," he added.

Erdoğan stressed that all measures are currently being taken by the Ministry of Urbanization and Environment, adding: "We want to have no issues with [building] foundations. Necessary surveys of foundations [in the area] are being done."

The government aims to allocate more areas to expand housing in İzmir, with at least 1.5 million housing units to be built over the next five years, he explained.

"We will continue to work day and night to prepare our country for natural disasters, especially earthquakes," he stressed. (AS/VK)