Help Slow in Reaching Azeri Quake Zone

Residents of five villages destroyed by an earthquake in northwestern Azerbaijan are now living in tents and worrying how long it will be before they get help to rebuild their lives.

The quake struck on the morning of May 7, with its epicentre in Zaqatala district. No one was killed, but more than a dozen people, including several children, were injured.

According to official figures, 3,000 houses and 100 public buildings were destroyed or damaged.

The villagers left homeless have no idea how much longer they will be expected to live in tents, since aftershocks have continued, preventing emergency teams from inspecting their homes.

“At first, we didn’t even get given tents. There were many people left without accommodation, but there were only enough tents for a small number of them,” Gulnara Gozalova, from the village of Gimir, said. “Our family of six had to sleep outside in the open air, and no one took care of us. It wasn’t until I spoke on television about the indifference of the local authorities a few days later that our family was given a tent.”

Another Gimir resident, Namig Ismayilov, said help started arriving after journalists visited the area, but there were still not enough tents.

“Two or three families are sleeping in each tent. How much longer can we live in such cramped conditions? People are practically sleeping on top of each other. Can’t they just fix the tent situation?”

In the village of Gozbarakh, Maryam Azizova said she was sharing a tent with 19 others. Families are living four or five to a tent.

“We get given very little food. Anyone who has money buys additional food for themselves, but those who were unable to get money from their homes are forced to go without,” she said.

In Gozbarakh, Nigar Abrahimova’s family had to build their own shelter on the back of a truck. She now lives there with her husband, four grandchildren and two daughters-in-law.

“I ask them for a tent for the family, but they say there aren’t any,” she said.

The situation is the same elsewhere, in villages like Alesker.

“The emergencies commission hasn’t made it to our village yet,” Alesker resident Abdulla Afendi said. “Only 30 per cent of residents have received tents, and they are small and can’t accommodate several families. There isn’t enough food… People are sleeping in cars and on the street.”

Azerbaijan’s emergencies minister Kamaladdin Heydarov insisted that tents had been issued as quickly as they were available.

“Women and children received help first, and they were provided with children’s food. The 20 million manats [25 million US dollars] we have been assigned will allow us to analyse the situation and provide immediate assistance. I imagine an additional sum will be provided to construct houses and other buildings,” he said.

At a crisis meeting on May 9, President Ilham Aliyev ordered the emergencies ministry to build substantial, high-quality housing for people who had lost their homes. The sum of 20 million manats was aside for this work, not just the immediate disaster relief.

Residents remained sceptical about future promises.

“They say they are going to build flats with 12 square metres per person instead of our ruined homes. But my house had an area of 150 square metres,” Ismayilov said. “That means we’ll be starting from nothing again, and many years will pass before we can get back to the situation we were in before.”

The disaster revived memories of the aftermath of severe flooding on the River Kura in spring 2010, when more than 20,000 houses ended up under water. At that time, the emergencies ministry and the local government set up a special commission to rebuild the area, and President Aliyev ordered the construction of new houses.

More than 300 million manats – some 380 million dollars – were assigned to rebuild these areas. Yet two years on, many of the flood victims are still waiting for their new houses, and more than 100 cases are currently before the courts.

Mehman Aliyev, head of the Kura pressure group, which was set up to monitor government spending on repairs after the 2010 floods, said he was worried that some of the money had been embezzled. He warned that the same could happen to the funds assigned to rebuild after the Zaqatala earthquake.

“Twenty million manats have been assigned for the first phase, but they aren’t saying where this number has been plucked from. How many houses are they planning to restore or build from scratch with it?” Aliyev asked. “Given the greed of officials, some of the money is bound to be siphoned off. The biggest problem is lack of transparency.”

Gadir Ibrahimli, head of the Guzaran think tank, said the government should learn lessons from the 2010 floods and from the inefficiency of the quake relief operation so far.

“It would be better to form a commission made up of respected members of society and local elders to monitor how the aid is spent,” he said. “Unless transparency is assured, then we will see protests in Zaqatala.”

Sevinj Telmanqizi is a reporter for the Yeni Musavat paper in Azerbaijan.