Earthquake disaster reduction

BANGLADESH is a disaster prone country like my country Japan. Bangladesh suffers frequently from various natural calamities such as cyclone, flood, storm surge, tornado etc. International Day for Disaster Reduction is a day to evaluate how people and communities are reducing their risk to disasters and raising awareness about the importance of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).

This country is situated in an earthquake prone region. Any time a medium to high magnitude earthquake in this region may bring tremendous property loss and sufferings. As per the Comprehensive Disaster Management Program (CDMP), if an earthquake of Magnitude 7.5 occurs 20-30 km away from Dhaka, half of the buildings in Dhaka will be affected, a quarter of them will be destroyed and 90,000 people will be killed.

The government has taken various steps to adopt measures against natural disaster related matters through formulation of national policy/plan, such as National Plan for Disaster Management (NPDM) and Standing Order on Disasters (SOD), and framing of Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) in 1993. Bangladesh government has requested the government of Japan for technical assistance to develop capacity of engineers toward disaster resistant construction and retrofitting. In response, Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) carried out detailed preparatory survey in July 2010 and concluded a project scheme by signing the Record of Discussions (R/D) in December 2010. The project titled “Capacity Development on Natural Disaster-Resistant Technique of Construction and Retrofitting for Public Buildings” (CNCRP) between Jica and Public Works Department (PWD), one of the main organisations to promote seismic-resistant buildings, had thus started. Total project period is 4 years from March 2011 to February 2015. The public buildings of Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet will be considered under the project. The immediate purpose is capacity development of PWD for design and construction of retrofitting works of the public buildings against earthquake, and the long term goal is to enhance the safety of the public buildings. Through the CNCRP, in last three and half years, around 20 PWD engineers received training on Japanese anti-seismic design and retrofitting by a team of Japanese experts.

In Bangladesh, DRR laws and regulations are not properly followed. Though more than 20 years have passed since the BNBC was enacted, very few buildings were constructed according to it. Even building owners still don't know about BNBC. Supervision to get everyone in the field to follow the BNBC is insufficient. In order to reduce the risk of vulnerable buildings collapsing, we have to follow the BNBC. The number of buildings that need to be reviewed is very high, and it will cost a lot.

Another option we can take is to retrofit the existing important buildings. In recent years, the word “retrofit” has become familiar to Bangladeshi people. There is a feeling that retrofitting is very expensive, and is not viable in Bangladesh. But this is totally wrong. Usually, it only costs 10-30% of a new construction. We may not want to retrofit a very old building unless it is very important. Generally, those buildings about to collapse are not worth retrofitting, and should be demolished. On the other hand, hospitals and fire stations cannot be rebuilt or relocated, so retrofitting will be have to be considered. Retrofitting is not always an expensive choice. We need to consider the return on investment.

Many buildings do not have blueprints, or are built differently from the blue prints. In many cases concrete strength of the actual buildings is weaker than in the plan. CNCRP evaluated some of the buildings. At the end of our project, we are hoping to share the facts on strength of concrete columns, management of reinforcement rods and how we can overcome overall buildings vulnerability. In order to decide whether a building should be rebuilt, retrofitted or left as it is, we need to collect sufficient information. For this purpose, we are preparing a vulnerability manual under the CNCRP. Such a manual is available in Japan and used on the field. However, we cannot use the same manual as the building structures of the two countries are different. We are analysing some buildings to compose a Bangladeshi manual. Japanese experts and PWD engineers have decided to retrofit the Tejgaon fire station as pilot basis to make an example.

Engineering knowledge and legislation are both important, but it is more important that each one of us is aware of the risks and works to change the current situation. In Japan, every one of us feel that our own home should be according to the safety guidelines. We cannot fully achieve nationwide DRR in Bangladesh without improvement of the people's awareness level. Thus, under CNCRP, we are also conducting awareness campaigsn on earthquake risk reduction in schools and colonies. CNCRP is merely a small step for retrofitting buildings in Bangladesh. This is not sufficient to make all the buildings stronger. During these efforts, we want projects like CNCRP to be developed and expanded further. There still are more things to be done, more areas to be considered, as well as identifying whom to train. We, the Japanese team here, are committed to be part of these efforts.

The writer is Team Leader, JICA Expert Team CNCRP.