How prepared are we?
The devastating earthquake in Nepal on April 25 jolted Bangladesh. The earthquake was of a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale and IV to V on the Dhakain Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale. The tremors were felt in different parts of Bangladesh, though in different intensities. Panic-stricken people of the country were perplexed, unaware of how to respond to this situation.
The earthquake generated discussions among ordinary people, researchers and disaster management practitioners. Pertinent questions keep rising about the level of our preparedness and competence of our agencies to respond to such a disastrous situation if it hits our country.
Generally, two geological plate boundaries and geological fault lines are where most earthquakes originate. The epicentre of the recent earthquake in Nepal had been in the Indian and Eurasian plate boundary, elongated 2,700 km in the east-west direction of the southern part of Nepal and Bhutan and the north of Bangladesh. This plate boundary had been the source of another devastating earthquake, the Nepal-Bihar earthquake of 1935, measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale.
Geographically, Bangladesh is located close to the boundary of two geological plates: the Indian plate in the west and the Eurasian plate in the east and north. Several major active faults, e.g. the Madhupur fault, the plate boundary fault (the northern extension of subduction fault) and the Dauki Fault, are also found in Bangladesh. These faults may generate large earthquakes over 8 on the Richter scale.
Seismic risk of any location is generally conceived as combined effects of seismic hazards i.e., possibility of the occurrence of an earthquake in a particular location, along with the vulnerability of that location in terms of its population density, soil characteristics, quality of construction and above all, the overall planning and development control mechanism being practiced in that particular location.
The country's proximity to seismically active Himalayan region, nearness to the regional active fault lines, and time elapsed after the last major earthquake indicate the possibility of an impending earthquake in Bangladesh. The current population density in urban areas in Bangladesh is close to 45,000 per sq.km. Most of the major cities in Bangladesh are growing rapidly without proper development control, adequate open space, and essential facilities like hospitals and lifelines to combat huge disasters like earthquakes. Urban planning and building regulations are, in most cases, either inadequately adhered to by individual building owners and developers, or enforced by the development control agencies, leading to poor quality of building constructions in the country. Since the country did not experience any large scale earthquake in the recent past, even agencies responsible for search and rescue operations are not well-prepared to face such kind of massive disasters.
The increased threat from earthquake hazards makes urban risk reduction a prominent agenda for the nation. The Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief of the Government of Bangladesh, is one of the forerunners in taking well-articulated earthquake preparedness initiatives in Bangladesh. CDMP has taken a comprehensive approach to urban risk reduction in general and earthquake risk reduction in particular. CDMP adopted a three-pronged approach i.e., seismic assessment, urban risk and vulnerability assessment and capacity building, in this regard.
Regarding seismic assessments, CDMP, for the first time in Bangladesh, conducted time predictable fault modeling - a detailed investigation to specify locations and extent of seismic hazards. Besides, facilitating risk informed constructions of infrastructure, seismic micro zonation maps for Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Bogra, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Rajshahi, Tangail and Mymensingh have been prepared. Sub Soil Investigation and Structural Assessment for developing retrofitting designs has been conducted for three important public buildings.
CDMP's capacity building initiatives are mainly clustered around two broad categories: increasing preparedness through awareness building and increasing institutional capacitiy of first responding agencies and earthquake research institutions.
For awareness building, a good number of posters and hand bills on earthquake preparedness are printed and distributed among the schools of earthquake prone areas. Docu-dramas have been produced and aired via different electronic media. Earthquake drills in 12,000 secondary and 30,000 primary schools all over the country have been conducted, jointly with the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education to raise the awareness level of school children. Drill items for 1,168 schools were also procured.
CDMP invested substantial amount of its resources in capacity building activities which include, preparing risk-informed strategic development plans for Mymensingh, developing four tier (agency, ward, city, and national level) earthquake contingency plans, training than 30,000 urban community volunteers, about 2,000 fire service personnel on search and rescue operations, 430 secondary and 1,500 primary school teachers on earthquake safety, and 1,940 construction(masons, bar binders and local contractors) workers on safe construction practices. Heavy equipment worth around BDT 18 crore have been handed over to the Fire Service and Civil Defence through the Department of Disaster Management. Research equipment and software worth about BDT 20 crore have been procured and handed over to Geological Survey of Bangladesh, BUET and PWD so that research in geo-investigation and vulnerability assessment can be continued.
It is popularly said that earthquakes do not kill, buildings do. Unabated growth of unplanned urban settlements, poorly constructed buildings and infrastructure that did not comply with building codes and a weak urban development control mechanism, have all contributed to this devastating disaster in Nepal. If appropriate measures, especially measures relating to development control through rigorous enforcement of urban planning and building code regulations, and appropriate institutional reform to oversee these enforcements are not taken immediately, the situation in Bangladesh would not be very different than the one recently experienced by Nepal.
The writer is National Project Director, Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme, and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Disaster Management & Relief, Bangladesh.
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