Afghan earthquake opens fault lines in South Asia

A powerful earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale that struck in the afternoon of Oct 26 has killed over 300 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan and injured many in the Jammu and Kashmir state of India. With the quake continuing for over a minute, citizens were driven into panic mode as mental images of the Nepal earthquake in April 2015 recurred for the first time since the tragedy. As South Asia came eerily close to another catastrophic event, the incident has raised some big questions regarding earthquake preparedness in the region.

Where India struggles with shoddily enforced building codes and crumbling infrastructure, Bhutan has not dedicated adequate funds to risk reduction. Nepal is also lagging behind in the implementation of disaster preparedness programmes. The standard of reconstruction efforts in Nepal was called into question in a recent report by IRIN Asia.

The Pakistan earthquake in 2005 that killed nearly 100,000 people and left millions homeless and injured, led to the creation of the Federal Relief Commission. However, the lack of a preparedness plan, sole dependence on the Army and the no fixed roadmap for long-term rehabilitation leave much to be desired, reports Eldis.

A study published in “Nature Geoscience” has underscored the need for urgent disaster preparedness in the region, predicting that it was likely to be hit by an even larger earthquake. Aside from Monday’s earthquake that jolted governments to the reality of their disaster management programmes, the study found that a magnitude 8.0 quake could affect western Nepal, Bhutan and the Gangetic Plain of India.

“We know that this area is accumulating elastic strain, which is available to drive earthquakes in the future,” said lead author Jean-Phillipe Avouce, reports IRIN. “This was certainly a tragedy, but it is not among the really large earthquakes the Himalaya fault line can produce.”

India has made some investments in risk-reduction. Twenty-five GPS stations have been set up in the state of Uttarakhand to monitor ground stress changes. Building safety, however, remains a major cause for concern in Indian, Nepal and Bhutan. Low-risk knowledge in Pakistan, which includes mapping and understanding of key hazards, remains a challenge.

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