IT is a wonder that Thursday’s earthquake that shook Harnai district and other areas including Quetta, Qila Abdullah, Sanjavi, Chaman, Sibi, Ziarat, Pishin and Muslim Bagh in Balochistan did not lead to a greater death toll. Report gathering has been slow and at the time of writing 20 people, six of them children, had been confirmed dead by the local and provincial authorities. Around 300 were said to have been injured. To their credit, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, the local administration and the armed forces stepped up relief efforts, with many of the injured in Harnai, the epicentre of the quake, taken to neighbouring district hospitals. Some were flown to Quetta via air ambulance. According to the PDMA, the ensuing landslide destroyed a number of homes within a 15-kilometre radius of the epicentre. There are also fears of several colliers being trapped inside a mine. The Balochistan home minister said that five to six districts had suffered major damage. More details are awaited. Balochistan, which lies in a seismic zone, and has a difficult topography, still needs greater development to make access easier via highways, stable power supply and improved internet facilities. When a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit the southwestern part of Balochistan some years ago, affecting the sparsely populated districts of Awaran and Kharan, along with Panjgur, Washuk and Gwadar, it had taken a few days for information to trickle in. In this instance, there seems to be greater coordination. But there is much more that can be done in these areas including having a PDMA office in all districts to facilitate rescue and rehabilitation work. At the moment, there is only one office in Quetta. More hospitals in the remoter areas are also needed to cater to emergencies.

Meanwhile, it would a good idea to assess how prepared we are for catastrophes of this sort. In Balochistan’s context there are also concerns for Quetta that was practically levelled in the 1935 tremor. A building code was evolved. However, over the decades as the city grew, rules, such as those indicating the number of storeys allowed, were violated. A media report last year quoting experts said that some 300 buildings in Quetta were at risk. One can only imagine the scale of the disaster had the epicentre of Thursday’s jolt been in Quetta. The Harnai earthquake should be a wakeup call for the authorities.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2021