The forgotten people of camp K8: About a year ago, the earth shook in southeastern Anatolia, killing 51,000 people. Today, hundreds of thousands of survivors live in shipping containers and under clouds of asbestos. Pure reporting.
Dust and noise hang over Adıyaman, this once beautiful city in southeastern Turkey, whose history dates back to ancient times. Currently, excavators dig through the rubble, a rotary hammer shakes the concrete rubble. There is asbestos dust in the air and toxic heavy metals seep into the groundwater. At night, packs of wild dogs roam the dark streets. It will soon be a year since the earth shook in Adıyaman. 8,400 people died that night in the Turkish city. Survivors now live in container camps. Some wish they had been killed or buried: “The dead are now in heaven. But we live in hell,” says Elif.
The 34-year-old woman was housed with her husband and three school-age children in one of nearly a thousand containers in the K8 camp, which is fenced off on the western edge of the city, in a deforested area in a new development district that has collapsed. , one of dozens of such fields spread across the city. When it rains, water runs down the roof. Those who could afford it stretched a plastic sheet over the container and filled it with plastic bottles filled with water.