Considering the seismic vulnerability of the state, all need to gear up their efforts to make Uttarakhand disaster safe. The state falls in seismic gap of 1905 and 1934 earthquakes that enhances seismic risk in the region and the same could roll back developmental efforts of decades in just a few seconds and human losses could well surpass our imagination, said that state’s Disaster Management secretary Amit Singh Negi. He was speaking at a one-day workshop on building construction and disaster resilience techniques organised by Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA) here on Monday.
Speaking on the occasion, Negi highlighted the efforts put in by USDMA during the past years in this direction. He spoke of seismic vulnerability and risk assessment, training of masons and engineers in earthquake safe construction, retrofitting of lifeline infrastructure, strengthening of building by-laws and mass awareness for voluntary compliance. Negi also shared details of ongoing disaster safety programmes of the department together with those being planned and to be rolled out soon.
He particularly emphasised upon the role of urban local bodies in warning dissemination and making Uttarakhand disaster resilient. Dehradun mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ highlighted the need for amalgamation of seismic safety precepts into smart city initiatives being undertaken presently in Dehradun and promised full support and cooperation of the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun in all the initiatives of USDMA for bringing forth seismic resilience. He also raised concern over increasing encroachment over Bindal and Rispana rivers and possible losses during extreme rainfall events.
Professor Yogendra Singh of IIT Roorkee deliberated upon essentials of earthquake safe construction and put forth simple ways of making commonly constructed structures safe. He highlighted that seismic safety commonly talked about is a compromise between saving human lives and economy and does never guarantee complete safety of the structures. He presented details of the evolutionary history of Himalayas and explained the cause of earthquakes in this region.
Explaining causes of losses caused by earthquakes, Singh said that most buildings are largely designed for sustaining vertical loads and not shear forces. Integration of all the four walls was stressed upon by him as being a remedial measure. Other safety measures put forth included restricting openings in walls, making openings away from corners, providing roof and gable bands in sloping roofs together with vertical reinforcement.
Earlier, USDMA ACEO Riddhim Agrawal highlighted the importance of the workshop and hoped that such initiatives would bring forth seismic resilience in the state. She highlighted that during disasters human losses are largely due to structural and non-structural damages as also due to follow up disasters.