Quake Preparedness

Bini Dahal

A massive earthquake has lately rattled the south-eastern region of Turkey and Syria, which it shares a border with. Measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, the first earthquake hit the area making the city of Gaziantep its epicentre. And within nine hours of the first quake, the region saw yet another big tremor of 7.5 Richter scale. As of writing this piece, the figures of death toll have exceeded 16,000 along with thousands of others injured. 

Earthquakes tend to happen due to the movement of tectonic plates. In the case of this disaster, it is reported that the reason is the movement of the Arabian plate towards the Anatolian plate. When the first earthquake was felt last Monday, people were sleeping. 

Videos circulated in the social media show how houses and multi-storeyed buildings fell straight to the ground like a stack of cards. So, it was quite impossible for most people to run for their lives. 

Currently, rescuers are trying their best to rescue people from the rubbles and take them to safety. Now that the earthquake has happened, a growing attention and focus has shifted towards the buildings and other structures within the country. According to news reports, the quality of most of buildings is questionable. So, most of infrastructures are unable to withstand such devastating quakes. 

This is a general tendency we have seen in most earthquake-prone countries, including our own. In 2015, we saw the mega earthquake which rattled many parts of Nepal, including Gorkha, Sindhupalchowk, Nuwakot, the Kathmandu Valley and Dolakha. And in recent times, we are hearing news of earthquakes in the western region of the country. While building codes and regulations are put in place, most of the houses are not built accordingly. This becomes a greater issue as monitoring and evaluation is weaker on the part of the concerned authorities.

This kind of negligence gives a free pass for the people to build infrastructures as per their need and benefit. However, it ultimately puts the lives of house-owners as well as others in peril. 

When infrastructures are not built in a safe and resilient manner, it can take our lives instead of providing us with safety and shelter. And even today, our preparedness is very weak. Obviously, relief, reconstruction and other key mechanisms are important. But, we still need to prepare for the worst case scenarios.

Despite Nepal falling in the seismic zone, we seem to have failed to learn any lesson. People are still found building high-rise buildings for commercial purposes without considering their ability to endure unpredictable calamities like earthquakes. The recent case of Turkey and Syria is a big reminder for us as well. 

According to the U.S. Geographical Surveys, earthquake prediction is quite impossible. So, our focus should be more on preparedness than prediction. We need to close down every gap that can push us to become victims of such disasters. Being aware of the potentiality of the earthquake and shifting focus towards a proper, strong and resilient shelter, a robust system can fend major problems from happening on our way.