EDITORIAL: 5.5 and Still Alive

The earthquake which shook Dhaka on November 21, measuring anywhere from 5.5 to 5.7 on the Richter Scale, and with its epicentre roughly 10 miles from the capital, was the strongest in living memory.

It brought into sharp relief the issue of earthquake preparedness, and demonstrated just how ill-prepared we are for an earthquake of more calamitous proportions.

The simple fact of the matter is that far too many of Dhaka’s buildings have been constructed without adequate earthquake planning and that our contingency planning for earthquakes is similarly insufficient.

That said, much of the doomsaying and panic-mongering that we have seen of late in both the mainstream and social media has been as disappointing as it has been unedifying.

Not only can it lead to public panic, but it also serves to distract attention away from the actual magnitude of the problem, and measures that we could take to realistically minimize the fallout from a more serious earthquake.

But let us start by stating that it is simply not true that Dhaka stands upon a uniquely dangerous fault-line, that a 9.0 earthquake is inevitable, and that therefore catastrophe is unavoidable.

None of these assertions is true, and they serve only to distract us from the real danger and could lead to poor decision and policy-making.

No one is benefited from fear-mongering and catastrophizing, and it is incumbent on the media and social media to convene a sober discourse around the issue instead of frothing at the mouth and running for the hills.

Gnashing of teeth and rending of garments and running breathless articles suggesting that the capital city needs to be evacuated and that the end is nigh and that we’re all going to die are profoundly unhelpful, and when the goal of such sensationalizing is readers, viewers, and clicks the narrative building moves from the unhelpful to the unacceptable.

Because, make no mistake, Dhaka is vulnerable to earthquakes and we are in no way prepared for an earthquake of even relatively modest size and strength, and that is the threat we need to plan for, not some imagined armageddon.

The November 21 quake must serve as a wake up call for us all. For far too long we have simply ignored the issue and as of today far too many of our buildings are simply insufficiently prepared for earthquakes.

This must change.

We simply cannot continue to cut corners when it comes to building safety.

The strategy moving forward needs to be threefold.

The first step is to ensure that every building that is built in future is earthquake-safe and that our urban planning takes into account the realistic threat of future quakes. We cannot continue to build without planning, both at the individual building as well as at the city-wide level.

The second is to identify which of the existing buildings in the city present an unacceptable level of danger, and if need be to evacuate them and rehouse the residents.

This will be difficult and unpopular, but we are no longer the kind of country that can shrug its shoulders and say we have no choice but to live with the consequences.

We don’t have to. We have the resources and we must have the self-respect and political will to ensure that no one has to live in unsafe conditions.

Finally, we need to ramp up our emergency services so that if God forbid we are hit by a serious earthquake, that we have a plan in place to ameliorate the suffering it will cause, and that power, water, and food, among other essentials can continue to be provided, and that the city will remain functional and the fallout can be minimized.

What is needed therefore is neither complacency nor catastrophizing, but a sober, hard-headed assessment of the threat and a realistic and tough-minded plan for how we should deal with it.