Mammoth relief and rescue efforts on in Japan

THE fallout from Friday's monstrous 8.9 earthquake and terrible 10 metre high tsunami that struck the north eastern region of Japan's main island, Honshu, is bound to be more dire than realized immediately, as all the aspects of the dreadful disaster, in terms of human and economic losses, unfold in the days ahead. Stocks worldwide, particularly insurance shares, have registered a slide and the price of oil too has gone up further. Japan, perched as the archipelago is, off the largest tectonic plate boundary in the world, is known for its rigorous earthquake building code and excellent tsunami warning system and evacuation plans. This earthquake-prone nation was in fact said to be anticipating a monster reminiscent of the 1923 Great Kanto quake, a 7.9 magnitude quake that killed 140,000 in Tokyo, but Friday's one turned out to be far worse, and was termed the fifth strongest since 1900. As many as 50 aftershocks, some stronger than 6 on the Richter scale, lasted for hours together. Countries west of Japan and across the Pacific as far away as Columbia and Peru that were warned, were however spared disastrous effects as the tsunami dissipated in good time across the wide ocean. The Japanese government has declared a state of atomic power emergency for as many as five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units were found to have lost their cooling ability. The 8.9 magnitude quake and tsunami led to a black out and disabled the emergency generators that powered the cooling systems. According to one report, at least one nuclear unit was said to have caught fire and was in danger of a possible meltdown. Japan's nuclear safety agency was quoted as saying that the situation was most dire at Unit 1 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, and that careful venting of internal pressure is needed both to control radioactive leakage and prevent explosion. Some 3000 people within three km of the plant were urged to leave their homes but the evacuation zone was further expanded to ten km after the authorities detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and a thousand times the normal inside Unit 1's control room. As of Friday most of the 51,000 residents living within the radius have been evacuated. Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, has asked politicians to 'save the country.' A move to mobilize a special budget to fund the massive relief efforts necessary has been initiated. In a country where its government remains heavily indebted internally, the near future promises a lot of difficulties indeed, as the immediate aftermath saw the shutdown of power plants and oil refineries and even auto plants. How much the damage would amount to is too early to surmise but observers believe it would surpass the 1995 Kobe quake which caused $100 billion damage, dubbed the most expensive natural disaster in history. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was said to have cost $10billion by comparison. First reports claimed at least 1300 people dead and unspecified numbers missing and injured in the coastal cities and towns of Honshu. At least 80 fires were sparked by the quake and countless homes have been destroyed. The Japanese responded quickly with more than 50,000 Japanese rescue staff and other emergency provisions like naval and coastguard helicopters pushed into service. Needless to say, the international community, including developing countries like Bangladesh, stand by the Japanese in sympathy and empathy in these difficult times. There are essential lessons to be learned for all in crises like these. The government of Bangladesh specially would do well to watch the extraordinarily dangerous problems posed by nuclear plants during earthquakes as this region has also known terrible earthquakes in the past, one that was so severe as to shift the course of the Bramaputra-Jamuna river overnight.