There is a severe lack of clean water in the quake-hit provinces in Turkey, according to the latest reports from the disaster zone.
Many frustrated earthquake survivors in Hatay, one of the provinces that suffered the most and received aid the least, announced and protested on social media on Friday that there was no clean water in the region. Soon, the hashtag #HataydaSuYok (#NoWaterinHatay) moved to the top of the country’s trending Twitter topics.
Hatay Metropolitan Municipality confirmed the reports on Twitter, also using the hashtag. Recalling that the Health Ministry warned the citizens not to drink the mains water until further notice, the municipality said, “Unfortunately, the urgent problem of drinking water continues to increase.”
While the fact that the authorities have not repaired the damaged public supply system or delivered drinking water to quake-affected citizens in Hatay received a nationwide backlash, similar reports started to arrive from the cities of Adıyaman (Semsûr) and Kahramanmaraş (Mereş), which were also devastated by the 6 February earthquakes.
Earthquake survivors in Hatay, Adıyaman and Kahramanmaraş, where state aid is still very insufficient in many regions according to numerous reports, believe that they are being discriminated against because of their Alevi and Kurdish identities.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and officials of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deny the accusations, arguing that aid has reached all quake-affected districts.
Activists, political party representatives and celebrities continue to call on the authorities to immediately solve the growing problem.