Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

‘Tremors: city in moderate risk zone’

Staff Reporter

Stress on safe construction practices

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thiruvananthapuram along with Latur and Jabalpur falls in the “moderate risk zone” for earthquakes, said Hari Kumar, national coordinator, India Earthquake Safety Initiative Geo Hazards International, New Delhi.

Latur and Jabalpur have already experienced the impact of earthquake. “No State in the country can be said to be earthquake- proof,” he said.

Mr. Kumar was speaking at a sensitisation programme on earthquake risk management, held under the UNDP, Urban Earthquake Vulnerability Reduction Project, at the Press Club on Saturday. Earthquakes in our country have brought home the reality that it does not kill people, but unsafe buildings do. About 60 per cent of the land area in our country is susceptible to damaging levels of seismic hazard, he said.

According to Mr. Kumar, the percentage of children who die in earthquakes is very high mainly due to unsafe schools.

Getting your building reviewed for earthquake safety by a competent and experienced structural engineeris the first step, he said. Some of the areas to be checked include corner columns and beams, stair walls, water tanks and partition walls.

Mr. Kumar also warned that the State was prone to cyclone. “The destruction in cyclone is not so much from wind but from water. When cyclone lashed the coast of Orissa, the sea made inroads into the land for nearly 22 km. This led to the casualty, as most of huts situated along the coastal areas were made of mud,” he said.

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