Feeling the earthquake

The newspapers in Bangladesh today are all headlining the 6.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Nepal, northwestern parts of India, Tibet and Bhutan.

It also affected Bangladesh although there are no reported casualties so far – just two buildings have been tilted slightly. But it was the first time I’ve ever felt an earthquake.

I was in Dhaka, attending my class at the British Council on Seven Mosque Road in the capital’s posh area, Dhanmondi, when suddenly the building started trembling. It felt like some giant force was either passing under the earth surface or a giant was pushing the building slowly. All the objects, including 13 humans in the room, were shaking.

It lasted about half a minute and phone calls started coming to our mobile phones though none of them rang, because we’d all put them onto vibrate mode. Some of the older people looked pale, possibly through concern for their families.

Our teacher was trying to make light of the tremor. “Don’t worry, this building will not fall,” he said. “If it does fall I’ll die with you!”

I wasn’t scared but I was worried about the country. As I’ve written in an earlier blog, it’s thought that the next great earthquake after Haiti and Japan is lurking beneath Bangladesh.

While reading today’s papers, more bad news caught my eye. The United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security has released its World Risk Report for 2011, which ranks Bangladesh as the sixth most disaster prone country in the world, second in Asia after the Philippines.

I don’t know what is in store for Bangladesh in the near future, but any disaster is bound to be magnified many times over, because the country has hardly any resources or facilities to sustain itself against a blow.

View Original Post @ Give Us This Day

Bangladesh: God’s own country or God forsaken land?



The red circle shows central part of Bangladesh is most vulnerable for earthquake (Photo: www.priyo.com)

If the environmentalists and seismologists are right, Bangladesh could turn into the definitive God forsaken land any time now.

A recent report by the Earth Institute of Columbia University in the United States says the next great earthquake, after the ones in Haiti and Japan, is lurking beneath Bangladesh and likely to jolt the land imminently.

Bangladesh is the most crowded place in the world with over 160 million people squeezed into just 147,570 sq kms of land.

If the disaster takes place near the capital, Dhaka, where the population is over 15 million, it will undoubtedly be the gravest human tragedy of all time. Not just because it happens in such a crowded country but also because people here have no safety net to face such a calamity.

But that’s not the only dire prediction. A couple of years back, a group of environmentalists warned that the sea level will rise by nearly 10 cm in the next 50 years. That will be enough to completely submerge the Maldives islands and wash away about 20 costal communities in Bangladesh, turning millions of inhabitants into climate refugees with no possibility of a return.

All the signs say that Mother Nature has been enormously violated worldwide and Bangladesh is no exception.

Now the world is repaying the cost. But isn’t Bangladesh paying too much?

Published on UCAN Blog- Give Us This Day on August 1, 2011