Reflection: Pakistan Earthquake Preparedness
Plan
August 21, 2019
The world is divided into seismic zones based
on the tectonic plates. Earthquakes are the evident shaking of the surface of
the Earth. If we look into a map of the world’s earthquakes, it shows that most
of them lie in narrow zones, often around the edges of the continents, or in
the middle of the oceans. A good example of this is Pakistan or officially
known as Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a populous multi-ethnic
country in South Asia. It is geologically located in the Indus-Tsangpo Suture
Zone, which is roughly 200 km north of the Himalaya Front and is defined by an
exposed ophiolite chain along its southern margin. Pakistan’s most remembered
earthquake they’ve experienced is the Kashmir Earthquake that happened last
October 8, 2005 that has claimed over 730,000 lives, affected over 2.5 million
people and damaging over millions of infrastructures. It is imperative that
buildings in Pakistan should withstand the seismic hazard to which they are
exposed. However, most of the building structures of Pakistan are brick masonry
with 62.38% of the people uses this kind of structure which is not earthquake resistant.
In line with that, they created a Building Codes of Pakistan (BCP) to further
improve the resistance of the structures in Pakistan.
Aside from the BCP, they
implemented National Disaster Risks Authority. This organization collaborated
with several organizations such as UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and
Recovery (BCPR). One of the programs they have launched is the Earthquake Risk
Reduction and Recovery Preparedness Programme to conduct Earthquake Risk
Assessment to raise awareness and part of their action plan is to organize
awareness in media, workshops/seminars, to apply the disaster curricula in
school education to give information to formal and non-formal education system.
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Block Masonry in Pakistan
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Damage brought by the Kashmir Earthquake
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Based on what we have researched, they weren’t
able to strictly maintain the ordinance and importance of their Building Codes
of Pakistan since the most of Pakistanis use structures that aren’t earthquake
resistant. Although the materials used for those structures are accessible
which is beneficial to the people, it isn’t right not to follow the rules. But
the good thing of the emergency plan of the Pakistan is that they ensure the
safety of their people by educating them of what could happen during an earthquake.
Preparedness for
this major natural disaster is a necessity since this is something beyond our
control and what we could do is to lessen the casualties and/or the negative
consequences it brings. There are action plans that should be strictly implemented
most especially the seminars and drills since these are the basics to know what
the people of Pakistan must do when earthquakes happen or what they must
prepare before this natural disaster strike.
Just like
Pakistan, Philippines also have its own organization that gives information
about earthquakes, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council
(NDRRMC) for Philippines and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for
Pakistan. These organizations give out seminars and lessons on what their
citizens must do whenever there is an earthquake. The difference is that the
Philippines has more detailed emergency plan because in their emergency, it was
stated on what equipment they should prepare before the earthquake happens and
the ‘duck, cover and hold.’ Another difference between them is their building
structure. As mentioned earlier, most people in Pakistan uses the brick
masonry, where this kind of structure is not stable and lacks the ductility
that buildings should have in order to withstand earthquakes or in simple
terms, they cannot flex without breaking. Most of the building structures in
Philippines uses RC building, this type of building consists of a frame or
skeleton of concrete. Horizontal members of this frame are called beams,
and vertical members are called columns. Of these, the column is the most
important, as it is the primary load-carrying element of the building. If you
damage a beam or slab in a building, this will affect only one floor, but
damage to a column could bring down the entire building.
Pakistan’s
emergency plan is much more centered around providing aid and risk assessment,
this is due to their country not being an archipelago unlike the Philippines.
The Philippines Emergency Plan and Earthquake Preparedness is much more
centered around the damage reduction and reducing the loss of life in affected
in areas. Philippines geology and being an archipelago makes it difficult to
provide relief and help thus affected areas have to rely on the local government
not on the national government.
Due to Pakistan’s
location, it is very prone to earthquakes and it’s no doubt that their
government has prepared precautions and emergency plans to prevent themselves
from being crushed from nature’s wrath. Overall, Pakistan is not totally ready
for earthquakes. With their poor building structure and lack of emergency plan,
although it is an advantage for them that they are not an archipelago not
unlike the Philippines. Pakistan is likely to suffer great effects when there
is an earthquake. However, this is not guaranteed to actually happen since it
depends on the magnitude and the intensity of the earthquake that is to happen.
Improvement and further development of the country’s safety is never too late.
It is still early to make changes. Lack of preparation and knowledge can cause
chaos than to be ignorant, it is rather better to be prepared and safe than to
be not because a person who is not ready at all times or are ignorant to what
is happening to the country is more likely to experience negative effect.
Reference
Concrete
Show (2017, March 20). Reinforced concrete structures are much safer in
earthquake zones. Retrieved from
httos://www.concreteshowindia.com/blog/reinforced-concrete-structures-are-much-safer-in-earthquake-zones/
Earthquake
Rusk Reduction And Preparedness Programme (n.d.) Earthquake Risk Management
Action Plan fo Muzaffarabad Programme.
Engr.
Francisco Jr., R. (n.d.) Overview of Earthquake Preparedness.
