An earthquake with the magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale is enough to kill thousands and cause an estimated loss of US$ 15 billion in the country, officials and experts have warned.
They said such a disaster would lead to complete collapse of the supply lines for utilities, foods apart from damaging concrete structures and wreaking havoc on monetary transactions, transportation, employment, trade and investment.
They urged the government to formulate on an emergency basis plans to address the grave threat posed by tremor as the country already is in the danger zone. They pleaded for involving people from all walks of life in execution of such plans.
Experts said unplanned urbanisation, coupled with violation of building codes, put the country and its economy at the grave risk of sudden collapse.
Terming the recent quake in Nepal a wake-up call for Bangladesh, they called upon the government to act immediately and strictly to ensure cent per cent compliance with the building codes to save thousands of human lives.
At the same time, they sought a faster pace in preparedness taking bitter lessons of the Rana Plaza disaster into consideration.
The Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2004-2005 had conducted a preliminary sampling on 6,000 buildings in Dhaka and the state-owned Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) in 2009 carried out a detailed and rigorous sampling on 100 buildings in the capital to assess a post-quake situation.
The World Bank, then, estimated that the country would suffer US$ 10 to 15 billion losses, if a 7-magnitude quake hits the country.
According to the estimate, about 0.4 million (4.0 lakh) buildings in both Dhaka city corporations would be affected and 0.1 million structures would face moderate to severe damage.
It also projected that Dhaka alone would suffer US$ 6.0 billion loss because of a tremor and nearly 0.3 million would die.
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Wake-up call as BD lies in quake risk zone
Jubair Hasan | Published: May 08, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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