Manmade disasters engulf Bangladesh

 by Zahid Al Amin June 13, 2011


Just in 10 days, Bangladesh has witness human tragedy at Dhaka's Begunbari, Nimtali and Shanti Nagar incidentally all are heavily dense populated location in the capital. Experts are seen two different reasons behind such human catastrophe while many are arraign Dhaka's town planning system and defectors construction method behind such tragedy. It is even predicted that such devastation may continue in Bangladesh in short or longer pause. The 400 hundred years old city – Dhaka is now face to face of real challenge of its existence from all sorts of natural and man-made disasters like earthquake, fire incidents etc.
Nimtali tragedy:
The ever most disastrous fire incidents in Bangladesh that has been taken 117 lives of 54 families in the eight buildings of Nimtali located in the old part of the capital, which also more than 150 were injured so far. Mixing residential and industrial establish in the same locality is the prime reason behind the Nimtali's incident. According to the information, hundreds of industrial establishment both legal and illegal are operating within old part of Dhaka leaving severe threat to citizens safety.
Begunbari and Shanti Nagar incidents:
Regarding Begunbari and Shanti Nagar incidents are possible result of growing usage of substandard cement, popularly known as pozolonic cement (Mostly mix with fly ash). None of the city in the world, pozolonic cement can be used for high rise constructions, while in Bangladesh such cements are even used in heavy infrastructures such as Jamuna Bridge etc. Engineering experts have been repeatedly warning the government about possible disaster due to usage of substandard cements in heavy constructions but a few are continuing to produce and market such cements by managing various officials in the department concerned.
According to the detail area plan of Rajdhani Unyanyon Kartipakkha (RAJUK), at best 250 people can live in each acre of land in a dense populated city like Dhaka. But in an average 500 people are living in the old part of the capital in every acre of land. Renowned urban planner Nazrul Islam told the journalists that population of Dhaka city will be reach at 25 million but the city is yet to be prepared to accommodate such a big number of inhabitants. It is learnt that there are 150 million people are living in 530 square kilometer are which is under RAJUK boundary. Which is one-fifteenth of the total population of the country.
There are 10 thousand illegal and unplanned residential buildings existing in Dhaka, a source of RAJUk informed. On the other hand, mushroom growth of real estate companies in recent years is another cause of headache of the city dwellers. Most of the real estate companies are reported violating laws while constructing high rise buildings as well as commercial buildings in the city.
The source further said that, a large number of commercial high rise buildings in Dhaka city's Purana Paltan, Kakrail and Naya Paltan area are not having any fire fighting tools inside the buildings. Many of the building owners have even rented out the under-ground parking area to various industrial establishments.
Skylark Point is one such building located at 24/A Bijoy Nagar [near Deaf and Dumb School]. The entire car parking lot of this building has already been leased out to an industrial enterprise, which is using the under-ground parking area for storing various types of flammable commodities, including high-flammable chemicals. Though the owners of this building were repeatedly warned by the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha, owners did not pay minimum heed to it. Moreover, the dozens of vehicles owned by the owners and tenants of this building are parked on the street causing regular traffic congestion. Members of law enforcing agencies, including traffic police are regularly compensated by the owners of this building for refraining from taking any action against the illegally parked vehicles around this building.
Risk for earthquake:
Experts have attributed the tilting or collapse of several buildings in the capital during the last several days either to impact of the recent Andaman earthquake or faulty design and construction. An earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale occurred in the Indian Andaman Islands at midnight of June 1, 2010.
The four buildings which either collapsed or tilted in the capital during the three days are - Concord Grand building at Shantinagar, a five-storey building at Purba Nakhalpara and one seven-storey and another five-storey buildings at Begunbari.
To drive his point home, Prof Mehedi Hasan Ansary of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) said on September 19, 1985, a major earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale occurred on the Pacific coast, about 350 km from the Mexico city. As a result, a 25 square km area of Mexico City was damaged killing 10,000 people and injuring 50,000 others. Similarly, the Andaman earthquake might be the reason for the recent tilting of several buildings in the capital, he maintained. He pointed out that 30 per cent soil in many areas of the capital city Dhaka is not suitable for construction of high-rise buildings. Construction of buildings should be considered on the basis of soil capacity, he said adding, "We should be very careful about it". "If an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale hits Dhaka city it would result in the death of at least 1,31,000 people due to fragile and faulty structure of the residential buildings and commercial centres. Besides, some 72,316 houses out of total 326,825 would be destroyed completely, " Prof Ansary said.
It is noted that Bangladesh is prone to earthquake as it is located along the border of Eurasian and Indo-Australian plates where earthquake occurs at regular intervals and its size is comparatively uniform.
According to experts, as Bangladesh is located in the earthquake-prone zone and the neighbouring countries are being hit frequently by powerful earthquake, there is a possibility that Bangladesh might also experience a devastating earthquake at some point any time resulting severe human catastrophe.