On February 6th, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 began with an epicenter in the Turkish city of Gaziantep. The earthquake has so far lead to the deaths of over 1,400 people with thousands more injured. This is the most devastating earthquake since the one in Istanbul in 1999 which took the lives of 18,000 people.
Although the title may not appear as "economic news" in the traditional sense, it does not take much to understand the devastating impact that the destruction and leveling of entire cities will have. Not only will the damage cost the city millions of dollars to restore infrastructure, but the loss of lives is also an economic impact on the area. The loss of lives decreases the labor force that is so much more crucial in response to the natural disaster.
Natural disaster relief is further impacted by the war-torn areas in Syria that have been affected by the earthquake. The northern portion of Syria hit by the earthquake is currently controlled by three different leaders: the national government, occupied by Turkey, and controlled by rebels. The separation of leaders in the various territories will having varying responses to the earthquake. In the context of economic systems, the economic efficiency of each regime varies so dependent upon where you live or your socioeconomic status, depends if you are able to receive assistance or medical attention. Turkey, as a member of the UN, can receive certain types of disaster relief assistance that the rebel-controlled area of Syria will not have access to. This lack of current assistance will prevent the cities from being able to recover in the long run.
https://www.economist.com/international/2023/02/06/massive-earthquakes-in-turkey-and-northern-syria-kill-thousands
4 comments:
Great post! Natural disasters are a great example of a negative externality as they do have a strong impact on a local or even national economy. Another example to look at is Haiti. When they had their massive earthquake, they were even more desperate for aid and they saw many people die and lose their homes and workplaces. A disaster does ripple into the economy and if Turkey does not receive aid, then they will struggle more to rebuild the city of Gaziantep.
This is by far one of the biggest disasters in the last century. As for today, the death toll from the earthquake that rattled Turkey and Syria on Monday has now surpassed 20,000 according to officials in both countries. More than 200,000 were injured. Nearly 26,000 search and rescue workers are on the ground searching through toppled buildings to find survivors. It is estimated that 180,000 people may be buried in the rubble of their homes in an area roughly as big as the UK. As every hour passes the probability of finding survivors decreases. Georgia has sent over 500 rescue and emergency workers to the neighboring country. Turkey has mobilized most of the country's emergency workers, while Syria contends with a very vulnerable situation because of the scarcity of resources and accesses. This disaster has destroyed the economy of overall livelihood of the cities of Turkey and Syria. Millions of people lost home and jobs.
The sanctions imposed on Syria by the US also makes it harder for aid to reach Syria. I think the US should lift these sanctions because the people of Syria need help.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-11/turkiye-quake-building-codes-earthquake-devastation/101961984
According to this article, a large portion of this incredible loss of life stems from the lax enforcement building construction rules and parameters that the Turkish government had set, which lead to contractors cutting corners to build their buildings. I believe that this is a perfect example of Government failure, as what I can only imagine are captured regulators who introduce "amnesty programs to allow developers to pay fines rather than modernise buildings", which leads to instances such as this one.
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