Bangladesh: Around 250,000 buildings in three major cities vulnerable to tremor

Around 250,000 buildings in the three major Bangladesh cities—Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet—are extremely vulnerable to earthquakes, a survey reveals recently.

Some 142,000 among 180,000 buildings in Chittagong; 24,000 out of 52,000 in Sylhet; and 78,000 out of 326,000 buildings in Dhaka were detected as prone natural calamities.

The results of the survey, carried out under Phase-1 of the Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP), were revealed at a national workshop on earthquake preparedness in Bangladesh, held in Dhaka on Thursday.

"The survey results were very shocking," ASM Maqsud Kamal, national adviser on tsunami, cyclone and earthquake risk of the CDMP, said at the workshop.

The survey was conducted to detect 'highly vulnerable' buildings, using new software called HAZUS, in the country's three major cities.

Kamal, a professor of geological sciences at the Dhaka University, said, "We have faced two or three severe earthquakes within the last 150 years, but because of the long interval since the last major tremor, the possibility of a dangerous strike in the near future is rising."

Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, vice chancellor of BRAC University and president of the Bangladesh Earthquake Society, a multidisciplinary research-based group, said the CDMP survey made significant progress with a successful fault-line search aided by modern technology and foreign experts. "The survey is the first of its kind in our country," he said.

Chowdhury said the most vulnerable cities in the country are Sylhet, for the Dauki fault, and Chittagong for the plate boundary of the Bay. Dhaka is vulnerable, even in a mid-level tremor, because of its high density population and high-rise concrete structures.

In course of the survey conducted from February 2008 to August 2009, a database of all the buildings and maps of water and gas pipe lines were developed to assess possible damages that could occur during an earthquake.

Experts observed that though disaster assessment has moved ahead with the survey, there have been hardly any tangible measures taken by way of disaster preparedness.

- Asian Tribune -