The 5.4 magnitude earthquake that hit Dhaka on Monday should be considered a wake up call. While the epicentre of the earthquake was located in India’s Assam, it’s only a matter of time until one catches us off-guard.
Bangladesh needs to heed the warnings of geologists that these tremors may foreshadow a more devastating earthquake in the future, as enough seismic energy is stored in the region to cause significant damage to the region. To that end, it is important to inquire exactly how prepared we are in tackling the impending.
Dhaka is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, a city in which the infrastructure is almost perpetually in-development with a recent uptick in the number of highways being built. The amount of potential devastation that an earthquake of any reasonable magnitude could cause is beyond our imaginations, then.
Moreover, according to a study conducted by the Housing and Building Research Institute earlier this year, around 56.26% of all buildings in the capital are at high risk whereas 36.87% are at moderate risk of damage from an earthquake of magnitude 4 or higher -- which means that up to 80% of the buildings may collapse if earthquakes the same magnitude as the ones observed in Turkey and Syria earlier this year were to hit Bangladesh.
As a people, Bangladeshis are not foreign to natural disasters, in fact we have done admirable enough jobs in terms of being prepared for cyclones and other climate-related catastrophes, and there is plenty of expertise and knowledge available on earthquake preparedness as we can learn from countries like Japan.
But given just how much more unpredictable earthquakes are, and their potential for destruction, this is one front that we will need to do better and do it fast.
Sunday, July 19, 2026
