Thingbaijam Dhamen

IMPHAL, Nov 27: A draft proposal containing precautionary measures, long term earthquake disaster mitigation programme components, post earthquake crisis management, emergency post-earthquake crisis measures and post crisis consolidation and reconstruction phase has been prepared by the state home department.

The proposal was prompted by the lesson from the recent strong earthquakes in some parts of India and Pakistan which left thousands killed and many more homeless.

An earthquake management plan had already been prepared some years ago for the state, but the state home department feels the need to reprocess it and keep it ready as prevention is better than cure, sources in various responsible officials expressed.

The home department is responsible for the preparation and designing the current draft plan said a source and disclosed that Manipur being geographically located in the region of lower Himalayas is a victim of frequent earthquake tremors. By and large most of the tremors are of low intensity and have not caused any perceptible damage, so far.

However, most of the houses and buildings in Manipur are not designed to withstand a high intensity tremor. This makes them prone to large scale damage at any moment by a strong earthquake.

The draft prepared by the earthquake management plan for the state warns of large scale collapsing of houses in and around Imphal area which have most of the multi-storey buildings resulting in injuries, loss of lives and properties including the hospital buildings at Lamphelpat and Porompat.

A strong earthquake in the state may also cause damage to the bridges on the national highways and other important roads and damage to water reservoirs at Singda, Ithai barrage and Khuga Dam. Large scale land slides and road damages on the national highways no. 39 and 53 and state highways also cannot be ruled out.

The Loktak hydel project, microwave and Doordarshan towers are also among the other structures that may be damaged by any strong earthquake in the state.

In the draft plan, mention is made of the need for making a thorough survey of multi-storey buildings especially in thickly populated areas of Imphal and other towns to check their ability to withstand a high intensity tremor and if they are designed and constructed with suitable materials.

All the structures of the state government offices, VIP building, sports complexes, vital installations, roads, bridges, airport runaways and control towers also need similar survey, it emphasizes.

Beside all this, a much improved fire fighting mechanism needs to be located at all the potential disaster prone areas to act side by side with mobile medical team.

Preparation and exchange of earthquake catalogue, epicentral and geologic tectonic maps of the north-eastern region, Myanmar and Manipur, analysis of seismic risk and seismic zoning of the Manipur region and development of anti-seismic risk codes of design and construction of various structures are among the long term disaster mitigation components.

Installation of seismological observation stationsis also part of the long term plan to mitigate earthquake disaster.

Describing the post earthquake crisis management, the proposed earthquake management plan stated that clearance of debris and demolition of unsafe structures, clearance of the roads and highways and repairing of bridges, deployment of security forces in open areas and other places where people may spend the night in fear are needed.

In this connection, sources also maintained that the state government must take prior initiative for earthquake measures so as to prevent large scale damages as well as to ensure timely control of any such possible crisis.

The possibility of the occurance of a strong earthquake in Manipur anytime is a very real prospect, as it falls in a seismically active zone. The home department hence feels such a plan is an urgent need.

 

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