Falling victim to blame game

These two buildings adjacent to the one that caved in Wednesday are equally vulnerable and may collapse anytime. They should be evacuated without delay, Fire Brigade sources said.PHOTO: Anisur rahman/akm mohsin

The 726 buildings are among 3,000 structures in the city Rajuk and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) marked as highly risky.

Early this year, the urban planning department (UPD) of the DCC alerted senior DCC officials to the vulnerability and asked them to demolish or reconstruct the buildings.

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The predawn collapse of the building No. 81, which was one of the risky structures, is the latest incident that replays a 1982 collapse of the house No. 10 in Shankhari Bazar that killed seven people.

Although some residents are interested in building new structures, most of them are in a dilemma as each building has a number of owners.

"Not everyone can afford to reconstruct new buildings as all owners do not have the same financial capacity, nor the same mindset," said Pankaj Dhar, a resident of Shankhari Bazar. "If the authorities help us financially, it could be possible to avoid another shock."

The UPD marked the vulnerable buildings after a survey based on Geological Information System covered ward Nos. 71 and 72 of Old Dhaka that includes Siddique Bazar, Shankhari Bazar, Babu Bazar and Sutrapur.

In the wake of Wednesday's building cave-in, Rajuk and DCC are pointing an accusing finger at each other for inaction to demolish the vulnerable buildings.

"The DCC is supposed to demolish the risky buildings in line with the Corporation Ordinance 1983," Rajuk Chairman Iqbal Uddin Chowdhury said, adding Rajuk is designated to approve building designs and check whether the owners followed the building code.

"Rajuk deals with new buildings," he said. When a building becomes unfit to live in, it is DCC's responsibility to demolish it, he added.

By contrast, the DCC blames Rajuk for neglect that led to the accident. DCC Chief Executive Officer Habibur Rahman told Star City: "Rajuk is responsible for the accident, as it does not check properly when a building is constructed violating the building code."

But urban planners held both DCC and Rajuk responsible for such catastrophes and blamed them for lack of control over new construction and old building expansion.

According to the 1983 ordinance, the DCC should demolish vulnerable structures. Section 111 of the ordinance empowers the DCC to inform landowners about the buildings up for demolition if it finds them risky until repaired to the satisfaction of the DCC.

"The DCC could not implement the law but sometimes served legal notices on the owners of vulnerable buildings," a DCC official said, asking not to be named.

The National Building Code 1993 and Town Improvement Act 1952 recommend some criteria for building safety with Rajuk as the implementing agency.

The Rajuk chairman agreed that some buildings were constructed without approval but said: "The DCC surveys all houses in the city to fix holding tax and marks unfit buildings."

Rajuk also sent a list of about 220 high-risk buildings in Old Dhaka to the DCC last year after surveying the area. Although the buildings were marked as vulnerable, the DCC did not evacuate the residents from the houses.

Most buildings have grown up vertically, increasing the risk of collapse. "Landowners tend to build their houses at low cost, which makes the structures fragile," a senior DCC official said.

FLAWED SURVEY?

The survey carried out on the basis of two criteria -- age and condition of structures -- may not be accurate if it does not consider soil, geology and engineering methodology.

"We found many structures old, but they may not be vulnerable to collapse if the engineering, soil and geological conditions of the structures are good," a senior UPD official said.

The identified structures are between 300 and 350 years old and some modern multi-storey buildings were also found risky.

"The 726 structures are so vulnerable that a moderate earthquake can knock them down," said an official, who surveyed the structures.

"If a structure collapses, it will crash down on near-by buildings and the losses of life and property will be high," the official warned. Most structures have no space between each other in the congested city.

"We will complete the survey on the entire city soon. We asked the DCC to demolish or reconstruct the 726 buildings, but nothing was done," he said.

DCC Chief Executive Officer Habibur Rahman said: "I have to check the list and we will go for action soon for the sake of public safety."

Old Dhaka residents are living in fear, as Shushanto Banik says: "We don't know how we can save our life."