The Turkey-Syria earthquake death toll topped the 36,000 mark on Feb 13 2023 — at least 31,643 in Turkey and 4,614 in Syria. No doubt these earthquakes have brought about grave human misery in these two countries. Moreover, Turkey’s earthquake and the aftershocks are said to have inflicted a loss of $84 billion or more.

It is important to note that the Turkish government has issued more than 100 arrest warrants in connection with the construction of buildings that collapsed in last week’s earthquakes. It has been claimed that many projects in southeastern Turkey were not built to code.

Turkey-Syria earthquake and aftershocks and the destruction wrought by them should serve a lesson to all of us in Pakistan. In the case of Karachi in particular, a very large number of buildings have not been constructed in accordance with code.

Although this city of teeming millions has not witnessed any earthquake-related damage in the recorded history of last 175 years, it is located in seismically active tectonic settings. Hence the need for fully updating/revisiting our Building Code and strongly implementing all the rules and regulations that are aimed at ensuring the construction of earthquake-resistant structures of houses, offices, shops, etc., in Karachi in particular. In other words, there must not be lax policing of building codes.

Jahanara Alam (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023