On March 6 local time, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Türkiye said that the strong earthquake in southern Türkiye on February 6 local time had killed 46104 people in the country.

Erdogan said that up to now, more than 230000 buildings have been seriously damaged in the earthquake. The government plans to build 100000 container houses in two months and transfer about 500000 victims to places with better living conditions.

Türkiye has begun to rebuild homes for earthquake victims. The initial plan is to spend at least 15 billion dollars to build 200000 apartments and 70000 houses.

Erdogan stressed that according to the current plan, the government will build 488000 new houses for the people within one year, including 405000 residential houses and 83000 village houses. Up to now, the number of houses already under construction has reached 22000, and 244000 houses and 75000 village houses will be constructed in the next two months.

Erdogan said that in addition to the resettlement of the victims, the authorities have also taken measures to ensure the recovery of economic production in the disaster area. So far, the government has set up 6000 temporary trading companies and a temporary market consisting of 3000 containers in the disaster area to meet the needs of basic business activities.

On February 6 local time, two earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 successively occurred in southern Türkiye's Kahlamamarash province in one day, causing heavy casualties and property losses, and more than 10 provinces were seriously affected. According to the report released by the World Bank on February 27, the catastrophic earthquake has caused about 34.2 billion dollars of direct losses to Türkiye, and the cost of recovery and reconstruction may be twice that of direct losses.

Seismologist, Tamaz is very concerned about post-disaster reconstruction. In particular, he hoped that Türkiye's post disaster reconstruction would strictly comply with domestic and international building seismic codes, such as moving some residential buildings to safer locations that can withstand earthquakes.

But he also said that post-disaster reconstruction will face many challenges. "First of all, seasonal weather conditions will be one of the biggest challenges faced by the reconstruction. Second, at present, most of the affected people live in temporary shelters, such as tents and containers. They are not only faced with poor sanitation and medical environment, but also with the threat of aftershocks. These are the conditions that need to be considered in the reconstruction."

"We have started the necessary work of rebuilding the city. In the next few months, we will start to build 309000 homes. Please give us a year," said President Erdogan of Türkiye when he visited the hardest hit province of Kahlamamarash on February 28.

We hope Türkiye's beauty can be restored, just like Wenchuan in China.