The powerful twin earthquakes that struck southern Türkiye nearly a month ago left over 232,000 buildings severely damaged or in need of demolition, the country’s Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum said Tuesday.

"We have determined that 232,632 buildings, including 651,416 independent sections, were severely damaged and need to be demolished immediately because of the recent quakes," Kurum said at a meeting in the southeastern Malatya province.

Kurum said the authorities have examined over 1.7 million buildings in the quake-hit provinces so far, adding that the damage assessment was completed in five provinces including Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman, Osmaniye, and Kilis.

"We started constructing homes as part of the biggest disaster housing construction campaign in the history of the Turkish Republic... We will build a total of 66,230 houses and 21,549 village houses in Malatya," the minister highlighted.

Ensuring a smooth rehabilitation process, the ministry also designated experts in the affected region, Kurum said, adding that the local authorities have also started the construction process.

The construction of 27,849 houses in the region will start by March 9, Kurum said, adding that the construction of 309,000 houses in all quake-hit provinces will begin in the next two months. At the same time, the process to demolish the dilapidated buildings in many parts of the quake-stricken region, including the Malatya, and Gaziantep's Islahiye and Nurdağı districts continues without interruption.

In Nurdağı and Islahiye districts, some 950 of 1224 buildings were demolished on Monday. Meanwhile, the construction crew and truck drivers are working round the clock to remove debris from the district, the General Directorate of Infrastructure and Urban Transformation Services Serdar Cenikli told Anadolu Agency (AA).

Over 46,100 people have been killed in the back-to-back earthquakes that struck southern and southeastern Türkiye on Feb. 6.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes, centered in the Kahramanmaraş province, affected over 13 million people across 11 provinces, including Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Elazığ and Şanlıurfa.