Editorial
The earthquake concern
Preparedness should be all-out
WITHIN 24 hours of an earthquake that in a way shook a vast region on the shores of the Indian and the Pacific oceans followed by a Tsunami alert, another quake of lesser intensity jolted Rajshahi, Rangpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and Sylhet districts. The redeeming feature is that no damage to life or property occurred.
The sources of the two quakes, however, were around a thousand kilometres apart. The worrying aspect of Bangladesh's position vis-à-vis the quake-prone flashpoints in the region is that it is close to four active and powerful sources of tremors in the Bay of Bengal.
Therefore, Bangladesh's vulnerability to stronger earthquakes is a reality that can be only ignored to our peril.
Lest we become complacent, experts have warned that earthquakes, albeit moderate in their intensities, coming one after another in a regular fashion, may be a precursor of yet bigger quakes with devastating consequences.
With some 90 such tremors of moderate intensity jolting the country between January 2006 and May 2009, according to Buet observatory -- Bangladesh should have meanwhile mounted elaborate preparedness measures against any future earthquake of still higher intensity. But as far as our knowledge goes, nothing of consequence in this respect has happened so far, except that the high court recently issued a directive asking the government to procure necessary equipment to conduct rescue operations during any possible destructive quake in the future.
Hopefully, in response to the high court order, the government machinery has in the meantime swung into action as far as post-quake rescue preparedness goes.
It is time we should get over the mindset of being voluble about earthquake only when there is an incidence. Instead, we ought to have a clear-cut action plan to face up to the challenge of quakes.
The most important part of the task is to create people's readiness in the face of such a calamity. There should be regular awareness campaigns in the print and the electronic media. Periodic civil defence and fire-fighting demonstrations should be organised at different educational institutions and office buildings as well as at community levels. Volunteer corps should be on the alert to take part in rescue operations. Simultaneously, the government needs to strictly ensure that the buildings of the major cities are constructed with built-in quake-resistant measures following, of course, necessary building codes. According to experts, 70, 000 buildings of the capital city remain extremely vulnerable to earthquake-induced collapse, even if it is of 6.5 intensity.
Given the experience of so many tremors scraping through us in recent times, now it is not a question of if, but when, any stronger quake jolts us. So, our preparedness cannot wait. This should be now and, of course, an all-out one.
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