Earthquake
Tragedy and Beyond
By A.S. Khan
Lombard, IL
Considering the magnitude of the
earthquake and the breadth of the affected areas,
it appears that the death toll would exceed 100,000
and the damage to private and public property
and environment destruction would surpass several
billion dollars. With more than 2.5 million people
becoming homeless, the scope of relief effort
has reached mega proportions.
Many villages and cities have been turned inside
out. Time is the essence. Instead of pledging
money for rescue efforts, the international community
ought to rush resources (helicopters, medical
teams, equipment for setting up emergency field
hospitals, medicines, and tents) to help the earthquake
victims. In the recent Bam earthquake and Asian
tsunami disasters billions of dollars of aid were
pledged by the international community, but only
a small percentage of the pledged amount was delivered
to the affected nations.
It is also imperative that government officials
abstain from touring the affected areas, and they
should instead focus on coordinating the rescue
operations, as their presence at the rescue sites
hinders the rescue operations to comply with the
security protocol. In addition, the government
officials appearing on the international television
channels ought to communicate effectively in defining
the specific nature of the relief efforts. The
short-term goal of the relief effort should be
to provide food, medicine, and shelter for the
victims, and the long-term goal should be to rehabilitate
them so that they can live normal lives. The Government
should also ensure transparency in delivering
the aid.
In the post-relief period, the government ought
to start rebuilding the destroyed villages and
cities. People should be offered grants and loans
to rebuild their homes. And in this regard structural
engineers and architects should provide blueprints
for building houses and buildings that can withstand
strong earthquakes. As Robinson, the author of
the book Earth Shock (1993) has observed, “Earthquakes
don’t kill people, buildings do.”
Since more than 95 percent of all deaths in earthquakes
results from the collapse of buildings, it is
incumbent on the local, provincial, and federal
government to develop a stringent building construction
code to ensure the survival of buildings when
earthquakes strike. (Constructing multi-story
buildings in earthquake territory is not a viable
idea!).
In Pakistan, the enforcement of building regulations
is lax; it is a common practice by building contractors
to cut corners by using less steel and adding
more sand in the concrete. The collapse of the
10-story apartment building in Islamabad appears
to be a proof of this unfortunate practice. Then
there are contractors who are engaged in shoddy
and illegal construction business. In most urban
areas, buildings are constructed on unstable ground
or without adequate seismic resistance, which
leads to a predictable natural disaster. Contractors
are not building dwellings; in fact, they are
creating graveyards for people.
Natural disasters cannot be predicted with absolute
certainty, but the use of appropriate technological
tools, proper planning and preparedness can minimize
devastation. In future to minimize the casualties
in case of earthquakes the government needs to
develop and enforce improved building codes and
develop a national plan to deal with natural and
man-made disasters. In this regard a protocol
should be developed to muster public and private
resources to set up regional disaster relief centers
where relief supplies can be stored for quick
delivery to victims of a disaster. In addition,
a fleet of at least 100 cargo/ambulance helicopters
should be acquired for carrying out relief missions
in rural and urban areas.
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