The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Earthquake experts at a roundtable meeting yesterday recommended a long-term and coordinated preparedness measure to reduce the risk and loss by the tremors.

Addressing the meeting on" Earthquake Risk of Bangladesh: Preparedness and Limitations" they said creating public awareness would not be sufficient to face the risk of earthquake; rather the main focus should be on rebuilding the cities under master plans.

The experts observed that around 10 crore people of the country are living under risk of tremor in the country.

The experts regretted that though various programmes have been taken to face earthquake but no effective measure was taken yet to reduce the risk of tremors.

They emphasised the need for creating awareness among the people who are living in risk areas and city dwellers have to be trained in post earthquake recovery exercise.

The meeting jointly organised by USAID, Care, Nirapad and the Daily Somokal was held at CIRDAP auditorium in the city. Dr ASM Maksud Kamal, national expert on earthquake and tsunami preparedness under Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) presented keynote paper, Dr Mehedi Ahmed Ansari of BUET's Civil Engineering Department moderated the function.

The meeting was addressed, among others, by CDMP official SM Morshed, Nirapad Chairman Abul Haseeb Khan, disaster-management expert Prof. Moniruzzaman, Dr Mallik of Bangladesh Earthquake Society, Executive Engineer of Public Works Department Sirajul Haq, Chief Engineer of RAJUK Shah Alam, Chief Town Planner of Dhaka City Corporation Sirajul Islam, Prof. Kamrul Hasan of Dhaka University Geology Department and Prof. Abul Kalam of Urban and Regional Planning Department of Jahangirnagar University. Dr Maksud Kamal said we are at the threshold of another earthquake as no major earthquake hit Dhaka in the last 100 years.

If any earthquake hit the Dhaka city with the intensity of 7 on the Richter scale a massive destruction of 9 to 14 storied buildings would take place," he said.

Urban planner Sirajul Islam said the national building construction code'1993 was updated in 2006, but, thereafter, no ministry or department was assigned to implement the code.

Prof. Abul Kalam said Bangladesh has no policy on land use whereas a country should have plan for every inch of her land.

He further said there was a law enacted many years ago to appoint urban planner at every pourashabha of the country, but the law still remained unimplemented.

Dr Mallik said most of the buildings in the major cities were built without following the building codes. "We cannot even imagine how terrific a disaster is coming," he warned.

Sirajul Haq observed that mysteriously the department has been made inactive from working out a plain to mitigate of earthquake losses.

Bangladesh being a part of Bengal basin is one of the most seismically active zones of the world.

In the recent past, a good number of tremors of moderate to severe intensity had taken place in and around Bangladesh.