National Earthquake Plan being formulated
Tshering Dema, ThimphuApr 27, 2016
The Department of Disaster Management is preparing a National Earthquake Plan.
A Senior Programme Officer with the Department of Disaster Management, Jigme Chogyal said his department already has had bilateral discussions with relevant ministries and technical agencies.
“We had a National Disaster Management Authority meeting and all the bilateral findings were presented to the Prime Minister.”
He said they now have a clear instruction to bring together the preparations of different agencies under one umbrella.
During the recent Meet the Press session, the Prime Minister had said Bhutan should be prepared.
“There is a lot of preparation and we are investing as much resources as we can and implementing as much preparedness in capacity building as we can now.”
Lyonchhen said Bhutan isn’t fully prepared but the government is doing its best.
Schools and hospitals are being checked to see if they are earthquake-resistance.
“… Since hospital and schools will have patients and students, we want to make sure that they are as safe as possible. If there are any schools that are extremely vulnerable, then we should take immediate measures to evacuate the school regardless of the fact that it may appear sound now.”
Vulnerability check has been completed for seven dzongkhags, till now.
Thats a great news but till now our school have recieved no such investigation. Norbugang Lower Secondary School which comprise of 30 staffs and almost 500 pupils are leaving in one oldest and disastrous buildings. Some structures were found really disastrous some years ago by disaster team and restricted from using. But today with no option, school is using. So in the compromisation of insufficient structures, so many genuine people leaving in the area shouldnot risk their precious life. So looking forward for reaching the news and safe those heads.
What about Samtse? Are there any officials that are going do the vulnerability checking of every building here?
Since it is closer to India,there is a high risk here and we all want to be safe.