Statement – Preparing for the big one: protecting health in earthquakes

Statement by WHO Regional Director for Europe, Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge

Thank you, Minister Memişoğlu, for hosting us, and for the leadership Türkiye has shown.

Before I begin, our thoughts are with the people of Venezuela. Just days ago, 2 powerful earthquakes there took many lives and damaged the health facilities that families depended on. It is a painful reminder of why we are gathered here today. Earthquakes come without warning. And too often, it's not the earthquake that takes lives, but the buildings that fall in its wake.

I was here in the days after the sixth of February 2023. I walked through the temporary shelters Türkiye set up across the affected regions, I spoke to survivors and I saw the emergency medical teams, among the best equipped I have seen anywhere, treating people who had lost everything. I will not forget it. Behind every figure from those days is a person. A family. Lives changed forever.

February 2023 taught us some hard lessons. It showed us that when an earthquake strikes, it is a hospital or clinic - the places people run to for help - that may not withstand it.

And it showed us what readiness looks like. The teams I saw here in Türkiye reached survivors within hours. More than 50 000 patients were moved to safety in the first days. That capacity did not appear by accident. It was built beforehand.

The lesson is simple. Preparedness cannot wait for the disaster.

A hospital built to stay standing protects lives when the ground beneath us shakes.

A hospital that collapses becomes a casualty of the disaster itself, making a bad situation even worse.

And the evidence shows that building a hospital to survive an earthquake adds just 1 to 4% in additional costs yet pays back more than 4 times over.

This is the smart thing to do, and it's how countries can protect their own people.

And that's why we are here, because no country can prepare alone. Today, ministers from across our Region and beyond have agreed on an Outcome Statement, a shared commitment to what protecting health from earthquakes requires. Hospitals that survive. Emergency medical teams and a health workforce that are trained and ready. Communities that are informed, engaged and empowered. Plans that are tested and rehearsed. Whole-of-government coordination that brings sectors together. And no one left behind.

The next earthquake will come. We cannot choose when. But we can choose whether our health systems are ready to meet it when it arrives.

Earthquakes are a major health security threat that require sustained investment, preparedness and international collaboration.

Türkiye has shown us it can be done and has shared its lessons openly so that others can learn from them. Teşekkürler, Türkiye.

Now it falls to the rest of us to act on them, before the next earthquake, not after.

Thank you.

ENDS