When Buildings Become Graves: How Many More Must Die Before We Enforce the Law?
Badrunnessa Belayet Anika
Dhaka shook again this week - mild at first, then repeatedly, as if the earth itself was attempting to remind us of a danger we have chosen to ignore. The latest tremor of 3.6 magnitude with the epicenter in Ghorashal only came days after a stronger earthquake of 5.7 magnitude killed at least ten people and injured more than hundred across the country. For many of the capital's residents, the experience was frightening: buildings shook, walls cracked and families fled down stairwells in fear. However, to the experts this was not just fear - it was a long overdue warning.
For years seismologists have warned that Bangladesh and Dhaka in particular is sitting on a geological time bomb. The tectonic plates beneath us are storing hundreds of years of energy which is capable of causing an earthquake in the magnitude range of 8.2 to 9.0. A disaster like that would cripple the capital city in minutes. Yet, in spite of decades of prediction and undisputed scientific evidence, our urban landscape is the expression of dangerous negligence. Dhaka has grown up and out - vertically uncontrolled, chaotically clustered and structurally fragile.
The recent deaths due to collapsing walls and weakened constructions after the November quake were not "accidents." They were the predictable result of years of corruption, lack of enforcement, political compromise, and ignoring of building safety laws. The Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) of 2020 is detailed, modern and perfectly capable of preventing mass casualties - if only it was enforced. Instead thousands of buildings in Dhaka exist in open violation of the code. Permissions are obtained for unsafe structures, old buildings rot unchecked and high-rises stand on poorly compacted soil reclaimed from wetlands.
These failures are not the fault of nature. Natural but man-made disasters: earthquakes. Dhaka's vulnerability has been a product of human choices - of authorities who have been issuing construction permits without checks, of developers who have been prioritising profit over safety, and of political patronage to protect the wrongdoing instead of the lives of people. When a building collapses the shaking ground is only the final trigger, the real causes lie in years of structural neglect.
One of the most painful realities is that of the fate of old buildings of Dhaka. Many are over
40-60 years old, being built long before there was any national building code. Their walls have deteriorated, their foundations have caved in and rods have corroded. Yet these structures still are home to families, offices, and schools. Why don't they rebuild or demolish them? The answer lies in bureaucratic paralysis, lack of funding, ownership disputes and a lack of a strong legal framework that will enable the government to declare buildings "unfit" and move residents out with immediate effect. Until the law gives the authorities the power to act decisively - and the compulsion to act decisively - Dhaka will continue to live with the black nightmare of tragedy for which it is entirely avoidable.
The law now has to rise to the occasion of this moment. Bangladesh requires a special Earthquake Preparedness and Structural Safety Act, one that requires compulsory structural audit every five years, strictly penalised non-compliant developers, and authorised emergency demolition of high-risk buildings. City corporations should be required by law to make open the list of vulnerable structures, so the public is aware of which homes and institutions are unsafe. Moreover, criminal accountability should be introduced: if a building collapses for non compliance then the owner, developer and approving officer should face charges similar to culpable homicide.
Dhaka’s unplanned urbanisation did not happen overnight, but its consequences can unfold in a single minute. The science is clear, the warnings are clear, and the tremors we continue to feel are only nature’s reminders of a danger we have allowed to grow. If another major quake arrives, thousands of lives could be lost—not because Bangladesh lacks knowledge or laws, but because the authorities refused to enforce them.
The question now is not whether the earth will shake again. It will. The real question is whether we will still wait for buildings to bury our family members before finally accepting responsibility. If we do not act today, the next one may not just shake the ground beneath Dhaka, it may shake the conscience of an entire nation.