Yangon’s regional government is planning to form an earthquake monitoring committee in an effort to reduce the potential damage to the city’s buildings and to take responsibility for carrying out rehabilitation activities, state media has reported.
The committee will be responsible for the promotion of public awareness of earthquakes and the development of a PTquake preparedness and response plan.
It will also be in charge of emergency medical preparedness, recovery and reconstruction, the Yangon Region Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Department told the Global New Light of Myanmar.
The regional government will also form a technical working group made up of local and foreign experts to conduct seismic diagnosis tests on public buildings, which are proliferating as the city’s population grows, the report added.
Yangon region lies 35 kilometres from the Sagaing Fault and is vulnerable to earthquakes when there is movement at the fault.
Other cities along the fault include Myitkyina, Tagaung, Thabeikkyin, Sagaing, Mandalay, Nay Pyi Taw, Taungoo, Phyu and Bago.
Myanmar has been struck by 15 earthquakes of a magnitude of 7 or higher during the past century, including the Bago quake in 1930, a Yangon quake in 1970 and a quake in Bagan in 1975. The most recent quake in Myanmar in August damaged as many as 396 pagodas in the ancient city.
A quake in Thabeikkyin in November 2012 killed 26 people and destroyed 462 buildings, while a quake that struck Tarlay in Shan state and elsewhere in 2011 claimed 76
lives and brought down 1,229 buildings.a
Source: Myanmar Business Today
