Home
Cities
Learning from Haiti
- Disaster preparedness
- Simple and easy way to make a room more earthquake resistant
- Earthquake Disaster Hazard Map for Kathmandu
- Open source software to analyze and design buildings
- An earthquake shelter for everyonee
This lack of interest represents pretty well the general attitude of Nepalis about Earthquakes - we don't want to think about it. If it happens, we will deal with it but for now lets pretend the risk doesn't exist. But make no mistake, the risk is very real and we will see a major earthquake in our lifetime. All you have to do is look at the history of Nepal - the recurrence interval is 70 years for a big earthquake and they are very regular. And the last big one was... 75 years ago. We're all living on borrowed time.
But maybe (hopefully?) the recent tragedy in Haiti will wake us up from our slumber. Haiti and Nepal have many many things in common. Poor health resources, poor living conditions, poor emergency response capabilities, extremely poor building standards. Our only international airport is connected to Kathmandu via bridges which will definitely break and limit outside help by airplanes and helicopters. Add to that our unique geography that will take days to send help and aid over land. When it is our turn, it will be exactly the same. Death toll in the hundreds of thousands, untold misery and complete breakdown of the capital.
Rham Emanuel from the Obama administration likes to say "a crisis is a terrible thing to waste". So lets not let this crisis in Haiti go to waste. Turn on your TV sets, read the papers. Then say to your self Port-au-Prince = Kathmandu and Haiti = Nepal. Think about losing your loved ones and family members under piles of rubble. Then breathe a sigh of relief that this hasn't happened to us. Yet. And do something about it.
| Rate this post |
Comments
0
2.
sthapit
@sidne - the best way to help nepal is to spread awareness. luckily life safety in buildings is not very expensive and it is a shame that it is not implemented here.
0
4.
pdfoote
i asked a taxi driver what he thought--from his perspective, people have been talking about it for years but so far nothing. so, based on that, he figures it won't happen. we are a little like ostriches on this one. hard to imagine until it happens.
0
5.
Biplav
@Sthapit - I totally agree, but people like my mom insist that the mystical powers of Pashupatinath will save our house. That's what we are up against.
0
6.
sthapit
@pdfoote - It's not us. The problem is that the recurrence interval for big earthquakes in Nepal is 70 years. Just long enough for people to forget and get complacent. If it's two generations before you how can you possibly care or feel like the threat is real? That's why education and history is so important for Nepal.
0
7.
sthapit
@Biplav - that's why people from our generation have to step in and do something. if not for the love for our country, then for our love towards our family members and simply not wanting them (and us!) to die needlessly.
+
1
8.
sandeshgiri
I am a civil engg. student in kathmandu studying in 3rd yr. Till now I have learnt to design steel structures in various load considerations, but the design code we follow (Indian Standard codes) don't include any earthquake loads.
So Nepal needs its own building codes so that we can properly build structures from our own perspectives.
0
9.
sthapit
@sandeshgiri - most of the buildings in kathmandu that will suffer catastrophic failures will be masonry and reinforced concrete structures. (Steel structures are pretty rare in Nepal anyway). As far as "following code" and not including earthquake loads... that is a travesty. Do us all a favor and educate yourself on the topic by reading books on the topic (RC Design by Menon and Pillai has a section on earthquake resistant design and is available at Educational Enterprise in Mahankal) if the educational system in Nepal has failed you to such a degree. At the very least, make sure the connections in the buildings you design don't completely fail and cause pancaking (see document below).
0
10.
Arbinde Rajkarnicar
@sandeshgiri Are you nuts? Nepal has a building code and especially for earthquakes. Can't figure where you studied and I am not an engineer but (and supposedly) you cannot get your building plans passed from the Municipality (or is that Metropolitan Authority) if you're building design does not take into account structural earthquake loads. Found this out while we were developing our building plan for our corporate office. But all engineers do take into earthquake into account. My bro-in-law is a civil engineer. He tells me that the #1 reason that building are built badly in Nepal is because the owner and the builder wants to save on costs so they compromise on the structural integrity.
NSET, JICA and the EU and a lot of other organizations have done a lot of studies that show that any earthquake in the valley would result in between 80-150K dead and over 200K homeless. But lets be real, there are very conservative numbers. I'd expect three to four times these figures.
0
14.
sandesgiri
The book you suggested will surely come handy when I will study "Design of RCC structures" in my next sem..As far as whether civil engineers are taught about earthquake resistant str. they do take knowledge about it from various seminars and other documents but those measures are hardly included in the B.E. syllabus. Engineers need to join M.E. for further study on earthquake resistant buildings. They also complete that course from either Japan or US.
0
15.
sthapit
@sandesgiri - are you required to take a structural dynamics class before you graduate with a B.E. in civil engineering?
0
16.
sandeshgiri
@sthapit -- structural dynamics including tall buildings, plates and shells and other topics fall under the course "Advanced Structural Analysis and design". The problem is that the course is an elective one. The electives are required for the last two semesters. So there is a choice whether you choose structure or other electives (such as rock mechanics, transportation or surveying). The students choosing electives (other than structure) will be completely unaware of structural dynamics and behaviour of structures under earthquakes. Hence I would like to make a point that these courses must be included as a compulsion rather than electives.
+
1
17.
krista
I had an evaluation of my home (i'm American but live and work in Kathmandu) done by John Sanday and Assoc. that cost me $500 alone, and the retrofitting (mostly around windows and doors) cost more than $1000. If it costs that much, how can the average Nepali person afford it? Its great to say, oh, there are building codes in Nepal. But open your eyes. I'm not an engineer but I can see how quickly and shoddily constructed most homes and buildings are in Kathmandu. I sponsor quite a few children to attend a Campion School, and when I asked the principal if the building was engineered to withstand earthquakes, he looked at me like i was crazy! I was definitely the only person who had ever asked him that and his response was no, and that they had no plans to, as the building was "very safe". That building would flatten like a pancake in an earthquake. My son attended the Lincoln School. The expat parents always said that if the big one came, we hope we're at the Lincoln School, the American Embassy or Phora Durbar. `Not only are they all built to withstand earthquakes, but the Lincoln School has enough emergency supplies (food, water, etc) to last 2 weeks. at the very least, let's hope that schools and hospitals in kathmandu will take urgent heed of the Haitian earthquake. But I doubt it.
0
18.
sthapit
@krista - John Sanday is an architect (an excellent one but not an earthquake engineer) afaik. So when you pay him the $500 he's probably taking a cut and hiring someone like Manohar. Maybe next time you could talk with Manohar directly.
As far as costing $1K to retrofit it's all a question of priorities. When there are homes in Kathmandu easily north of US$500K that $1000 doesn't sound like a huge percentage. It's like saying you won't put in a seat belt in your that costs $100 when the car costs $50000.
At the end of the day this is about life safety. I think people [wrongly] make it a question of economics when life safety should be non negotiable. Here's a link that should warm anyone that lives in Kathmandu's heart. And this article makes for great bedtime reading as well.
0
19.
jinepal
It's not about the relatively few people in $500k homes. Many of them are on the higher solid ground, not the lacustrine soil of the valley floor. It's the folks who rent cheap rooms in shoddy RCC buildings who will disappear forever, when the entire city becomes a two meter deep pile of rubble.
Buildings engineered to withstand earthquakes in Kathmandu include: The Telecommunications Bldg., Lincoln School (retrofit), Hotel Vajra, Kalimati Vegetable Market, and the Technical School at Santo Thimi.
Anybody know of any others?
0
20.
sthapit
wow. this is scary http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/24/world/20100224-quake-map.html
I've actually been thinking about this all day.
As someone who's lived through a "major" earthquake (Los Angeles in 1994), I know how devastating they can be. And that was in a developed country with high levels of building requirements and decent emergency response capabilities.
I've been trying to think how I could help Nepal better prepare.
6 months ago