City dwellers live in quake risk
Say experts
City dwellers face a constant risk from earthquakes as many buildings were constructed on soft ground without following the building code properly, said experts at a discussion yesterday.
Around 112,000 buildings may collapse if a tremor of intensity level eight struck the city, they said.
The discussion titled “Risk of Earthquake in Bangladesh” was held at the auditorium of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) in memory of the contributions of Prof Zahurul Haque of Buet.
Prof Mehedi Ahmed Ansary of Buet civil engineering department, over a keynote presentation, stated that the country's north zone is likely to face tremors of high intensity, which might cause numerous deaths and immense losses.
“Developers ignore the intensity matter and try to convince clients over claims that their buildings are resistant to 8-magnitude earthquakes.
“But it should be remembered that damage is related to intensity, not magnitude,” he said.
Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, former vice chancellor of Brac University, said though a gazette was released in 2006 regarding the building code, regulatory bodies are yet to implement it.
Earlier, a one-minute silence was observed to remember Language Movement veteran Imdad Hossain, founding member of Science Culture Parishad, who passed away recently.
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