While a moderate tremor in Dhaka is likely to cause a disaster, costing thousands of lives, the authorities are yet to be prepared for such a situation.

In the wake of Saturday's devastating earthquake in India and Pakistan, which also jolted Bangladesh, the question of Dhaka's vulnerability to earthquakes has once again come to light.

Despite the experts' repeated urge to take steps for earthquake management in Dhaka city, the authorities did not respond well.

Dhaka stands on an earthquake zone, experts say.

In the case that a heavy tremor

shakes the city, there will be little scope to get help as Bangladesh Television, Zia International Airport and the DhakaChittagong Highway, the main sources of direct and indirect assistance, will also be affected, urban planners said.

A recent study carried out by Dr ASM Maksud Kamal, a teacher of the geology department of Dhaka University, showed that only 35 per cent of Dhaka soil is resistant to earthquakes, while the remaining 65 per cent, which have been developed through earth-filling, remains at risk.

Dr Maksud's study also revealed that 9 to 14-storey buildings in the city are most vulnerable to

FROM PAGE 1

earthquakes as most were constructed in deep marshy land, without any geological survey.

"Almost 65 per cent of the city areas, developed through earth-fillings, are at tremor risk," Maksud Kamal said at a recent seminar, referring to the 1958 aerial survey.

Maksud, who conducted the survey at 184 city points with a micro-tremor machine, found that the ground of Dhaka represents 17 different soil types and exhibits its own characteristics in responding to earthquake-caused ground motion.

But the city authorities do not have the least preparation to conduct rescue work.

The authorities' utter helplessness in rescue work was revealed after the Savar building collapse tragedy in April this year.

After the collapse of the nine-storied Spectrum Sweater building there, the government deployed hundreds of rescuers comprising personnel from the Fire Service and Civil Defence, army, police and other departments.

Ill-equipped as they were, the large team took seven days to finish the rescue work, resulting in the gradual death of a number of trapped workers.

"We do not have equipment to carry out such a massive rescue operation," Selim Newaz Bhuiyan, deputy director of Fire Service and Civil Defence, told reporters during the rescue operation in Savar on April 11, 2005.

"We have some equipment and we are trying to get some more. We have been conducting a training programme for our rescue crews especially emphasising the earthquake," said Brigadier General Rafiqur Rahman, the director general of the Fire Service and Civil Defence.

The fire service department said they expect some equipment from USAID, and the disaster management department is also processing to buy light rescue equipment worth Tk 200 crore.

Due to the unplanned expansion of the city, the lanes and by-lanes are most unfit for conducting any rescue operation, experts say.

Emphasing preparation of city maps indicating the soil structure and quality to avoid tremor risks, the experts several times called for developing adequate land-use regulation for urban earthquake risk management, as well as updating the 1993 National Building Code and its implementation.