Dhaka�s risky buildings need instant care
The Monday�s
earthquake should serve
as a strong reminder that unless the worn-out old buildings or poorly
constructed ones are
taken good care of
immediately, they can
collapse by even
moderate tremor
The pictorial presentation in the yesterdays newspaper of an old and dilapidated building at old Dhaka tells it all: those who are still living inside it may face great tragedy any time. The Mondays earthquake should serve as a strong reminder that unless the worn-out old buildings or poorly constructed ones are taken good care of immediately, they can collapse by even moderate tremors. Seismic experts are roundly making warnings that the capital city Dhaka is situated in an earthquake-prone zone and an earthquake measuring 7 in the Richter scale may devastate its skylines.
But any effort to amend the risky buildings must first make a list of them. In fact, the High Court several times in the past urged the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) to submit a list of these buildings before it which Rajuk repeatedly failed to do.
In one occasion the HC even scolded the Rajuk chairman. In the wake of Rana Plaza collapse in 2011, the High Court issued a suo moto order in this regard. As per the directive of the court, the Rajuk should have gone through the city and spotted the buildings already constructed or under construction without following the extant Building Code. It must be pointed out the callous attitude Rajuk has shown to this serious issue until now is very unacceptable.
There are, however, two aspects to deal with the building safety issue. The first one is Rajuk has to ensure that not a single building would be constructed without following the Building Code. The other one is more complex: once a list of unsafe buildings is prepared---and it is expected that there would be hundreds of such buildings on the list---how these buildings could be corrected? The buildings in old Dhaka would surely be more in the category of risky buildings. And there is no quick fix here: demolishing these buildings straightway would not solve the problem. This is because it is impossible for many of the inhabitants of old buildings to reconstruct their buildings of their own, and the matter has to be considered sympathetically. Therefore, the government can take up plans to give to owners of risky buildings soft loan with a long grace period so that they can build their buildings by themselves. Moreover, it can even buy these buildings from their owners and build housing facilities for selling them to the middle income groups of people of the city. The point is: a tremor with great magnitude can demolish cities with strongly constructed buildings. But Bangladesh must be prepared to withstand even a moderate one.
