Need for earthquake preparedness in Dhaka | Is our city waiting to collapse?

Saturday 22 November 2025 08:15 PM Last updated on: Saturday 22 November 2025 09:07 PM

After Friday's earthquake, the authorities must begin urgent preparations

Saturday 22 November 2025 08:15 PM Last updated on: Saturday 22 November 2025 09:07 PM

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The enemy is no longer at the gates. It's already on our doorstep. Now it was anyone's guess when he would finally break through the door. In the wake of Friday's 5.7-magnitude earthquake, a terrifying question has emerged: Was the capital built to last, or is it just waiting to collapse? The answer is made bleakly clear in the chaotic areas of Old Dhaka. There, an iron barrier collapsed, killing three people and bringing the total death toll to 10.

The proximity of the earthquake changes the survival calculations. With the epicenter located in Madabdi, just 13 kilometers from Dhaka, the geological threat is no longer far away. It was shallow, and released its energy near the surface. Such tremors cause major damage to mid-rise buildings, the four- to eight-storey residential buildings that make up most of Dhaka's urban sprawl, according to experts. These buildings, often built on filled wetlands with little regard to engineering codes, are potential coffins. Historical trends indicate that earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 occur in this region every century, and it has been more than 100 years since the last earthquake. As one BUET professor suggested, the geological clock is ticking. A major crack could now level a third of Dhaka city to the ground and kill thousands of people.

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The tragedy is that this fragility was designed. RAJOC, the agency charged with regulating the capital's development, has long served more as a facilitator of real estate chaos than a guardian of public safety. Concrete was poured on the wetlands. Building rules remain fluid, designed to accommodate the commercial whims of developers squeezing into tight tracts of land. As an expert at the Bangladesh Institute of Planners points out, even minimal space between buildings is often erased from final plans.

During a visit to Old Dhaka on Saturday, President Rajuk gave a bleak prognosis of urban development. He acknowledged that developers treat enforcement as a minor inconvenience: When authorities cut utility lines to stop illegal construction, construction workers simply turn to stolen generators or connections. But his threat to close the quake-damaged Armanitola building if the papers are not issued within seven days rings hollow against the backdrop of decades of loose governance. Rajuk's strategy remains reactive and easy to implement.

So, to minimize the destruction after another strong earthquake, the government must adopt economy and precision. Chief Rajuk's suggestion that owners of small plots of land should build common legal structures seems to represent sound urban economics. Larger lots allow for necessary geometric tolerances that are virtually impossible on smaller lots. But good economics requires good monitoring. The proposal by experts to introduce a system of third-party verification of building designs, similar to the model of Indonesia and Thailand, represents a fundamental alternative to a regulatory body that has lost its way.

History offers a grim footnote to this urgency, as Bangladesh prepares for something much worse. By cruel coincidence, Friday's quake occurred on the anniversary of the 1997 Chittagong earthquake, which claimed many lives. But looking back is a luxury. If Friday's shock was indeed a harbinger, with two successive shocks occurring on Saturday, the window for action has begun to narrow. The government must immediately authorize inspections of all medium-rise buildings and enforce a “red-yellow-green” safety coding system. To ignore the warning is to be complicit in the coming catastrophe.

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