Enforce Buildings’ Code

ON the occasion of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) Day-2001, Nepal Geological Society, in collaboration with the Home Ministry, UNDP, the Disaster Mitigation Support Programme Project and NEST-Nepal, organised a discussion programme on "Countering Disaster, Targetting Vulnerability" the other day in the capital city. The programme was the first of its kind organised in Nepal in pursuant to the UN’s call for observing the second Wednesday of every October as the ISDR Day for a decade, starting from 2001. That Nepal straddles a 1,200-kilometer long seismic zone that runs along the entire Himalayas is very well known to all by now. As such, it looks to reason for all, particularly the concerned authorities, to have disaster relief and mitigation plans that could be speedily activated whenever an earthquake rumbles through the country. The fact that no seismologist has, till date, come up with a gadget that can accurately predict an earthquake from happening is all the reason more for the concerned authorities to be not only on their toes constantly but also to have plans to mitigate an earthquake’s adverse impacts on the country and the people.

Seismologists and quake-induced disaster management experts, on the basis of their erudite studies, aver that the after-shocks of an earthquake are more deadly than the initial shocks. In other words, more precious lives and limbs are lost to the devastation that occur immediately in the wake of an earthquake. As such, precautionary measures to mitigate the after-shocks’ adverse impacts on the people and vital infrastructure should not only be chalked out by the concerned authorities but also widely broadcast to the people. Amongst the possible precautionary steps, one is to come up with updated codes related to the construction of buildings and essential infrastructure like dams, bridges, roads and irrigation facilities. For, by now it is crystal clear to all that falling debris from quake-hit buildings are the main cause of casualties. Also, that those vital infrastructure that disregard the codes’ specifications tend to buckle or burst whenever a major quake occurs in areas where they are situated. Hence, if the people’s precious lives as well as the nation’s vital infrastructure are to be saved and protected from a quake’s adverse impacts, not only must the building and construction codes be strictly enforced by the concerned authorities but they also need to have disaster relief and mitigation plans always at a ready.

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