"If this technology, which is available in the region, is applied, thousands of lives can be saved from earthquake in Bangladesh that is located in the earthquake zone," he said at a workshop on 'Gender in urbanisation and community-based disaster management and shake table demonstration'.

The workshop was organised by Bangladesh Disaster Preparedness Centre (BDPC) in collaboration with United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) and National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET)-Nepal at the National Press Club in the capital.

Appreciating Bangladesh's institutional capacity in regard to disaster management, Manoj said UNDP is committed to help Bangladesh in its efforts for disaster preparedness in association with the government and the NGOs.

He called for ensuring women involvement in any disaster preparedness activities, saying that they are more vulnerable to disasters.

Ram Chandra Kandel of NSET-Nepal staged a shake table demonstration at the workshop where he practically showed how a building without earthquake-resistance technology easily collapses and the other with earthquake resistance remains safe.

Ram said most of the buildings in Dhaka are not built with earthquake resistance, though the engineering institutes teach the simple technologies that do not require any extra expenditure for their application.

"The students are taught in the engineering schools, but they do not implement those while constructing buildings," he said, adding such practices are not only true for Bangladesh, but also for many other countries of the world.

Amod Mani Dixit of NSET-Nepal said earthquakes in India and Pakistan had killed hundreds of people, but there are countries where people do not die.

"Earthquakes do not kill people, unsafe buildings do it," he added.

He identified soft stories, short columns, irregular configuration and pounding of buildings for the collapse of buildings causing loss of huge lives.

"We can make 90 percent buildings stronger if we want, and it is not very expensive," he noted.

Emphasising the need for sharing of knowledge and experience and motivating people for using the technology, he said knowledge for constructing earthquake safe building exists for over thirty years.

"We can eliminate all risks by using this technology," he said.

In her presentation, Yoko Saito of UNCRD said 56 percent women and 44 percent men were killed in the Gujrat earthquake proving that women are more vulnerable to earthquakes.

Gender perspectives therefore should be considered in the disaster preparedness process, she added.

BDPC Director Muhammad Saidur Rahman and Ian Stanford, Rector of Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme, also spoke at the workshop.