The Australian info The excavator tore into the residues of the harmed structure in southeast Turkey, taking it crashing down into a cloud of dust — the mostcurrent hazard dealingwith survivors of the fatal February quake that damaged the area. Extending to the horizon, a cocoon of fine grey dust covers the city of Samandag in the south of Hatay province, ravaged by the February 6 earthquake that eliminated more than 55,000 individuals and laid waste to parts of Turkey and Syria. “We endured the earthquake however this dust will eliminate us,” Michel Atik, creator and president of the Samandag Environmental Protection Association, stated with a sigh. “We are going to die of breathing illness and lung cancer with all these dangerous products.” Five months after the quake, the scale of clean-up and restoration is massive, with the federalgovernment estimating that almost 2.6 million structures haveactually been damaged. According to the UN Environment Programme, some 210 million tonnes of debris needto be disposed of. By contrast, some 1.8 million tonnes of debris had to be carried away after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City that brought down the World Trade Center high-risebuildings. Environmental activists and regional homeowners concern that in the rush to tidy up and restore, essential security steps are being neglected, with possibly unfavorable results on the health of regional citizens, the environment and the economy. – Landfills – The garbagedump near Samandag is one of numerous that haveactually been set up in this province surrounding Syria. It lies next to the Mediterranean and the Milleyha natural bird reserve, which is natural bird reserve, which is a nesting website for threatened green sea turtles. Another garbagedump, in the Antakya area, lies near a valley of olive trees at the foot of the Nur Mountains. With olive oil the main source of earnings in the province, there are fears that the dump might damage the trees. “They puton’t even pipe it down,” stated Ca
Read More.
