Damage to buildings in recent earthquake in Iran (photo: Times Free Press)

By David Singh

Geneva, 15 November, 2017 - The collapse of some state-built homes in Sunday’s earthquake in western Iran was evidence of corruption, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told a cabinet meeting today, according to state media. 

The 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit western Iran as well as northeast Iraq on 12 November 2017, and has claimed over 450 lives and injured close to 7,700 people. 

An estimated 445 people have died, while 7,100 have been injured in the Kermanshah Province, in Iran. Mr. Rekawt Hama Rasheed, Health Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government, said seven people have been killed in the Darbandikhan area in Iraq, while the Ministry of Health also confirmed that 535 people have been injured. 

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the earthquake has left about 70,000 people homeless in Iran, houses and historical buildings have been damaged across eight cities, and 526 villages are severely affected. Iranian officials estimate that approximately 12,000 homes were destroyed while another 15,000 were damaged. 

The Iranian Government stated that some of the houses which collapsed were built under an affordable housing scheme initiated in 2011. 

“That a house built by ordinary people in the Sarpol-e Zahab region has remained standing while in front of it a government-built building has collapsed is a sign of corruption,” President Rouhani told the cabinet meeting, state media said. 

Sarpol-e Zahab is the town hardest hit by Sunday’s earthquake. A picture which is being widely circulated by ordinary Iranians on social media, shows a building in the town with relatively little damage next to a heavily damaged government-constructed building.