The earthquakes that devastated Syria in early February have caused direct damage of 5,100 million dollars (4,803 million euros). This figure is equivalent to 10% of the GDP of the affected countryaccording to the preliminary quantifications carried out by the World Bank.
The report highlights that there were four provinces that suffered major damage, and in which about 10 million people reside. Of these, that of Aleppo, with 4.2 million inhabitants, has registered damages worth 2,300 million dollars (2,166 million euros). In Idlib and Latakia, the losses are 1.9 billion dollars (1.789 million euros) and 549 million dollars (517 million euros), respectively.
The World Bank warns that Lost profits due to damaged infrastructures and buildings have not been quantified, which should be further evaluated. In addition, the impact on protected pieces of art or architectural ensembles has been excluded from the calculation due to the difficulty in estimating the damage in these cases.
damage to buildings
The body estimates that 48.5% of the damages have affected residential buildings and another 33.5% to non-residential buildings, of which many are schools or health centers. The remaining 18% damaged transport, water, electrical or telecommunications infrastructures.
“These losses add to the years of destruction, suffering and hardship that the Syrian people have faced in recent times. This disaster will cause a drop in economic activity that will further condition Syria’s growth prospects,” he lamented.or Jean-Christophe Carretdirector of the Middle East department of the World Bank.
The institution that is the result of the Bretton Woods agreements already published a similar memorandum last Monday on the situation in Turkey, where it stressed that direct damage there amounted to 34.2 billion dollars (32,206 million euros). Thus, both countries need international cooperation to carry out a restructuring of their economic systems.
