A moderate earthquake of magnitude 5.8 and two aftershocks that followed, which rocked Assam on Sunday, pressed the alarm bell for a
reality check on preparedness in the state for earthquakes of stronger magnitude. Periodic and comprehensive safety audits of buildings—residential, commercial and government buildings in Guwahati and other urban growth centres—being made central to earthquake preparedness is critical to mitigating the risk of structural damage. Horizontal and vertical expansion of Guwahati city symbolizes rapid development-driven large-scale migration of people for livelihood, business and employment. Leaving the safety gaps in buildings and infrastructure unaddressed increases the vulnerability of development being reduced to rubble, as the entire northeast region is located in the seismically most active zone, V. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), in its report titled “Earthquake Disaster Risk Index Report”, highlighted a critical gap in building construction which increases the vulnerability. The report states, “It is a common practice in India that most houses are constructed by individual owners without much guidance on the seismic safety measures that are required while constructing a house or a building. The contractor constructs houses to meet the demand and conveniences of owners, without the involvement of engineers or architects.”The NDMA warned that such non-engineered constructions demonstrate poor behaviour during earthquake shaking, leading to severe damage or even collapse of structures. Building permission issued in the city will show adherence to engineered construction on paper, but in reality, many house owners continue to depend on contractors and do not involve engineers or architects during actual construction. The city also lacks any efficient monitoring mechanism to ensure that building construction norms are strictly followed, and similar laxity in other growing towns in the state needs to be urgently addressed. The current disaster management framework prioritises risk prevention over reactive responses like rescue and relief to increase disaster resilience through risk mitigation. In case of seasonal disasters like floods, there are structural solutions to reduce vulnerability to inundation and submergence, but the unpredictability of earthquakes makes it imperative to remain prepared for the occurrence of earthquakes of stronger magnitude through the enforcement of seismic-resistant design and construction. The mere conducting of safety audits is not going to increase the resilience if follow-up action of ensuring that retrofitting solutions, wherever recommended by structural engineers, are applied to make the buildings, more particularly the old buildings, safer to withstand strong earthquakes. Official projections show that by 2030, 40% of the Indian population will be living in urban areas. The cities will witness, as a result of the increase in population in cities and towns, the construction of more medium- to high-rise buildings for accommodation of new migrant populations and the construction of multi-storeyed offices and commercial spaces to cushion the growth. If the city and other towns do not rise up to the new realities and make construction safety monitoring, the earthquake vulnerability will increase manifold. Transparency in monitoring mechanisms and safety auditing can go a long way in raising awareness levels about earthquake preparedness. In the case of individual house owners, making public the safety audit findings and violation of safety norms during construction will be an eye-opener, while for owners of apartments in multi-storey buildings constructed by private builders or multi-brand real estate developers, it will increase the awareness to compel builders to ensure that safety aspects of their apartments are not compromised by any shortcuts or use of inferior quality building materials.The Guidelines for Earthquake Safety issued by NDMA in 2021 provide details based on the National Building Code of India 2016 (released by the Bureau of Indian Standards, Government of India) to those who are constructing a house and who are buying a flat in multi-storey buildings, which are made of either masonry or reinforced concrete.This guideline also provides them the basic information that they should have when constructing individual houses or buying flats in multi-storey buildings. Improving earthquake preparedness demands wider publicity for this guideline in simplified and layperson’s language so that homeowners or commercial space owners are aware of the importance of earthquake safety right from laying the foundation of buildings and not just about the aesthetics of the structure on the foundation. Ironically, due to a lack of awareness about the role to be played by home or apartment owners in safety aspects of building construction, it is often wrongly perceived to be the exclusive domain only of builders, engineers, and architects, with no active involvement of the owners except for financial transactions or material procurement. Strengthening earthquake preparedness in Guwahati and other parts of the state demands that the fault line exposed by the gap between knowledge on risk mitigation and application through enforcement must be mended at the earliest. Anchoring the earthquake preparedness guided by technical guidance in both administrative enforcement and public awareness is essential to reduce risks and increase resilience.