Buildings with light bricks less vulnerable to tremor: Experts

Earthquake experts at a seminar on Sunday suggested light or less-weight bricks be used in building construction to reduce tremor risk. "Buildings built with high-weight bricks are highly vulnerable to earthquake. If the weight of building increases, its vulnerability to earthquake goes up," Dean of the Earth and Environmental Science Faculty at Dhaka University Professor Dr ASM Maksud Kamal told the seminar, held in the city. He said low-weight bricks must be used in constructing buildings in Bangladesh to minimise weight of buildings, or else, it will be quite impossible to minimise the risk of tremor in urban context. The Department of Disaster Science and Management of Dhaka University and Curzon Hall Environment Club jointly organised the daylong seminar on earthquake risk management at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban on the university campus. Professor Maksud Kamal said Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to earthquake due to its geographical location, but the country lags behind in taking preparedness to tackle the earthquake aftermath. "If we invest one dollar in mitigation of earthquake risk, we'll be able to save US $10 in management and rehabilitation of the disaster," he added. Other experts underlined the need for taking initiatives to conduct seismic assessment to all buildings of Dhaka city to check their vulnerability to earthquake. Mentioning that presently RAJUK has the regulatory authority to enforce the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC), the experts said at the same time RAJUK is a developer and regulatory body, which is not a realistic approach. They put emphasis on forming a separate authoritative body to enforce the BNBC in a proper way as well as take massive programme at community level for creating mass awareness about earthquake preparedness. As per a 2009 study of Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme, (it is the county's only recent most study on earthquake), 88,000 people will be killed, 72,000 buildings (22 percent of total buildings) collapse and 158,000 building (49 percent of total building) be damaged in Dhaka, if an earthquake with 7 to 8 intensity hit the capital. Former director of Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) Dr Kazi Nasrin Farooque and Chairman of the DU’s Soil, Water and Environment Prof AHM Mustafizur Rahman also spoke at the seminar among others, according to BSS.
- biplab