Building experts yesterday blamed faulty or weak construction, negligence of the building code and lack of repairs for the collapse of many buildings in Bangladesh, including in the capital Dhaka, even without the influence of an earthquake or any other natural disaster.
Professional engineers and building experts made the observation while addressing a workshop, titled “Retrofitting of vulnerable buildings and quality construction of buildings for safer cities,” in the capital yesterday.
The experts also underlined the need to follow the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) strictly to make all establishments earthquake-resistant, as such negligence have made many high-rise buildings in the capital vulnerable to natural disasters.
The daylong workshop was organised by a project, jointly arranged in cooperation with Public Works Department (PWD) with technical support from Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), for capacity development on natural disaster resistant techniques of construction and retrofitting for public buildings (CNCRP).
During the workshop, which marked the third-year completion of the CNCRP project, engineers shared their work knowledge and experiences while preparing an inventory list of 3,000 public buildings, practicing various seismic assessment methods, and improving building construction quality.
Fumio Kaneko, team leader of Jica study team, used a slide presentation to inform the workshop that the collapsed multi storey buildings in and around Dhaka, such as Rana Plaza, Begunbari Building, Phoenix Garments, Spectrum Building, Shankhari Bazar Building, had mainly collapsed due to faulty and weak foundation structure.
According to earthquake hazard and risk assessments made during 2006 to 2009 by Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) of the ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, an earthquake of 7.5 magnitude near Dhaka may collapse some 72,000 buildings and greatly damaged around 1,58,000, as the BNBC was not followed strictly.
The assessment also concluded that an earthquake of such magnitude might also cause a significant damage to various facilities, marking a 25% loss in the annual national budget.
The presentation also informed that reinforced concrete (RC) structures in Bangladesh are 3 to 5 times more vulnerable than of Japan and USA.
To overcome such risks, the PWD has already begun to update the BNBC and also adopted a four-year CNCRF plan with technical support from Jica.
Already, many ready-made garments (RMG) factories have begun retrofitting its vulnerable buildings under the CNCRP project. By December 2013, some 300 garment factories applied from BGMEA and BKMEA for retrofitting after a detailed evaluation.
Earlier, Jica signed a memorandum of understanding of Tk1 MoU with Bangladesh Bank, BGMEA, BKMEA and PWD in this regard. Under the agreement, the officials said the PWD has conducted preliminary seismic assessment and will conduct in-depth assessment and start the retrofitting works for RMG factories based on the BNBC.
The CNCRP project, which upholds the use of retrofitting technologies, started in March 2012 and will be completed in February 2015. The project has been implemented in Dhaka, Sylhet and Chittagong.
Public Works Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain inaugurated workshop as chief guest, while Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhary Maya was special guest.
During the inauguration, Mosharraf said: “In the present situation, especially after collapse of Rana Plaza, the CNCP project has become vital for our country. By applying the retrofitting technology, it will be possible to reduce the venerability of old establishments in Dkaka.”
Housing and Public Works Secretary M Golam Rabbani, Japan Ambassador to Bangladesh Shiro Sadoshima and Jica Chief Representative here Mikio Hataeda also spoke on occasion.
“I would like to stress that the BNBC is the only standard of Bangladesh for construction of the building. Therefore, all stakeholders should follow the BNBC to ensure building safety.” said Hataeda.