Safeguards Against Quake
THE RESIDENTS of Kathmandu had a weird feeling Friday morning and panic
gripped in a while. By the evening, they had known the tremors of the deadly earthquake
had already killed over a thousand lives in India. And the number rose every passing hour.
The Gujarat quake, one of the worst in decades, had resulted in the deaths of over 1500
people overnight. The powerful quake has left the townspeople devastated and residential
houses have gone down the rubble. Several buildings, including schools, have been damaged
in the town of Bhuj and Ahmadabad, the largest city of Gujarat. In one of the worst
incidents, it is reported that over 150 people were killed when a single building
collapsed. Similarly dozens of school students died trapped under the debris in the tragic
incident. The sheer scale of the tragedy indicates the quake that hit India around 9
o’clock (NST) was the worst in the last 50 years. The southern neighbour was suddenly
left mourning just an hour before the annual Republican Day celebrations were to begin in
the Indian capital, New Delhi. Unfortunately, the earthquake is one such calamity about
which science and technology can do nothing. Despite the technological advancements, the
modern science can neither control nor forecast earthquakes. As a result, most of the
earthquakes end in the massive losses of life and poverty. In the last 12 years, 22
earthquakes measuring over 5.5 on Richter Scale have swept across the world killing over
126,000 people. Nepal, oft-regarded to be an earthquake prone zone, has also suffered a
number of destructive tremors in the past. The worst was the Great Earth quake of 1934 A.
D. in which thousands of people perished in Nepal and the Indian state of Bihar.
Similarly, the earthquake of 2045 B. S. caused a great damage to life and property, mainly
in the eastern parts of Nepal. As such the only way to save the life and property from
such unavoidable tremors is to apply safe construction methods. However, the people in
Kathmandu and elsewhere in the country hardly seem to be following the safety measures
while constructing their residential buildings. This leaves us panicking when we think of
tragedies of similar scales. We should therefore strictly implement the building codes,
which are the only safeguards against the nature’s bane.
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