Rana Plaza collapse: Two years on

Two years ago, on April 24, 2013, an eight-storied building named Rana Plaza  collapsed in Savar. After 21 days of the collapse when the search operation was declared closed, the death toll rose to 1,131. Approximately 2,515 injured people were rescued from the debris of the building alive. It is considered to be the deadliest garment factory accident in history. According to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), at the time of the collapse, five garment factories with total 2,760 workers were in operation in the Rana Plaza building while other sources put the figure at 3,900.

Although two years have passed since this man-made disaster, many victims are yet to receive the promised compensation from the government and the Western retailers. Many sources report, around half of the workers received Tk 1- 5 lakh each from the prime Minister's fund; however, the compensation was very insignificant for the injured workers. Two years into the incident, about Tk 1,080 million out of Tk 1,270 million that was deposited to the prime minister's fund in aid for the victims is yet to be disbursed (TIB).The government pledged long-term support of Tk 1.0-1.5 million for the seriously injured, but only a few of them received the payment so far.

The Rana Plaza collapse is the worst garment factory disaster ever, but there have been many other similar tragedies. Fire in Tazreen Fashions in January 2013 is one of them where 112 people were killed. Just two months prior to the disaster at Tazreen, fires at two factories in Pakistan killed more than 260 people.

Perhaps the worst garment factory disaster in the USA occurred at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York City in March 1911 - a fire that trapped and killed 100 people, mostly young women. That fire incident led to the USA to create building, fire, and safety codes around the country. The immediate aftermath of the Triangle fire was somewhat similar to the current scenario in Bangladesh.

The direct reasons for the building collapse included building was built first without authorisation on a pond, conversion from its commercial use to industrial use where heavy machineries were placed on upper storeys, addition of three floors in comparison to the original permit, and finally the use of substandard construction materials which led to an overload of the building structure aggravated by vibrations due to generators. These identified reasons illustrate the physical condition of the buildings in our country. In addition to that, the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC, 2013) revealed, the column sizes of the Rana Plaza were comparatively small, compared to a standard 8-9 storied industrial building, which might have facilitated the sudden collapse.

The Rana Plaza collapse brought Bangladesh to a global focus in a new way. Just immediately after the collapse, foreign retailers withdrew their operations from Bangladesh. The owner of the building was arrested and his assets were confiscated. He has been charged with negligence, among other offenses, but many of his assistants have secured bail by this time. Effort was given to introduce risk assessment of the building. However, there is no result yet coming from that action where most of the factory owners did not submit their buildings' assessment reports.

After the incidents, most of the commitments made by the government and trade bodies to compensation and rehabilitation of the victims remained unfulfilled.

A single building collapse killed 1,136 people and wounded more than 2,500 workers while the government's 'all-out action' took around 21 days for completing the search and rescue operation. Logically, curiosity grows: if a moderate tremor hits the country and leads to collapse of thousands of buildings, then how long the government will take to finish its search and rescue operation with this minimum extent of preparations along with huge gaps in equipment stock. Thus, the Rana Plaza collapse exposed weak preparedness of government and other relevant service- providing agencies including factory owners for a tremor.

Although Bangladesh has not experienced a major earthquake in over a century, recently an escalation in seismic activity has been observed. The observatory at the BUET recorded 86 tremors over four magnitudes during January 2006 to May 2009. These minor tremors indicate the possibility of much more powerful earthquakes hitting the country. As per CDMP research, a 6 magnitude earthquake will destroy 62,000 building in Dhaka. Thus the Rana Plaza collapse gives us a wake-up call for enhancing our preparedness and implementing building codes.

After Rana Plaza, the government has undertaken a number of initiatives to minimise the loss and damage caused by any possible disaster. Analysing the seismic data, the government has already prepared the earthquake risk maps of Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet City Corporations and similar mapping projects are indeed under way for some of sub-regions. The National Contingency Plan has already been prepared. The Ministry of Housing and Public Works is working to enforce the Bangladesh National Building Code in constructing new structures to make the structures earthquake-resistant. The government has launched an initiative under the Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) to build an emergency force of 62,000 community volunteers across the country to carry out rescue operations immediately after any disaster like earthquake occurs. The government has also taken a step to procure equipment under the 'Procurement of Equipment for Search and Rescue Operation and Other Disasters' to carry out rescue operation immediately after disasters.

Bangladesh, a predominantly rural country, is undergoing a transformation toward urbanisation at a remarkable pace. In 2012, the global population reached 7 billion while urban population outnumbered the rural population. Research reveals urban population will be more than 70 per cent in Bangladesh by 2070 while it brings serious kinds of vulnerabilities for the urban people. It is estimated that 3.1 million people are estimated to die annually from urban air pollution while 1.3 million people are to die annually from road accidents. All these give the wakeup call for making our cities safe from such hazards.

Rana Plaza victims should get compensation quickly and in a transparent manner; their family members should be treated in a dignified manner. For the injured victims, it is urgent to restore them in new jobs, address their health issues in a sustainable way so that they can lead a decent life. Education and health issues for the children of the victim workers should be taken care of by the authority. The RMG sector is important for Bangladesh, but it should grow in a proper way by following rules and norms of business. Buildings of industries should be constructed as per the Building Code and risk assessment should be done in a periodic way.

All the buildings should have emergency fire exit and fire safety mechanism. The industries should organise simulation for emergency fire exit on a regular basis while the Fire Service and Civil Defense should supervise the entire process. Every organisation should develop its contingency plan and execute it periodically. Unfortunately, there is no monitoring authority for effective implementation of the Bangladesh National Building Code. An authority should be established for the implementation of the building code along with execution of its framework.

The Rana Plaza collapse has exposed the inadequacies of search and rescue capacity of the emergency response agencies. It is high time to enhance emergency response and procure rescue equipment for the relevant agencies.

At the initial stage of Rana Plaza tragedy, urban volunteers had played a significant role for search and rescue. Such volunteer programmes should be institutionalised with volunteers trained on 'First Aid, Search and Rescue' and linked to emergency response agencies. Non-government organisations have set the example of coordination during rescue and rehabilitation. In order to make it robust, the government should emphasise greater involvement of public and private sectors on implementing risk reduction measures.

The Rana Plaza collapse reminds us how fragile our buildings are. Learning from this tragedy, preparedness could be an integral part of our regular life that may reduce the loss of lives and property.

The writer is National Coordinator for Urban Development at World Vision Bangladesh.

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