Improving School and Hospital Earthquake Safety in South Asia
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Attendees at GHI's May 2011 workshop in New Delhi on school and hospital earthquake safety.
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South Asia
(2011-)
THE PROBLEM:
Recent earthquakes in South Asia, one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world, have shown that health and educational facilities are often extremely vulnerable to damage in earthquakes. Steps must be taken to protect these important community buildings from seismic threats because safe hospitals and schools are vital to ongoing efforts to protect and empower people and to reduce poverty. In the past decade, many countries in the region have begun to address the earthquake risk posed by vulnerable hospitals and schools. But despite the recent growth in seismic safety initiatives in these countries, for the most part, they still lack cohesive, overarching plans to translate the current mix of individual projects, policies, and guidelines into a focused, coordinated effort to make schools and hospitals safer from earthquakes.
GHI'S RESPONSE:
GHI and the World Blank's Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) have formed a partnership to improve school and hospital earthquake safety in South Asia. The project's ultimate goal will be to produce consensus-based, country-owned, draft national action plans for school and hospital earthquake safety in India and Bhutan. These draft national action plans will provide leaders with substantive guidance that can be formally adopted and that can also direct immediate and long-term efforts to implement risk reduction activities
As a first major step toward developing the draft national action plans, GHI and GFDRR hosted a South Asia Regional Consultation Workshop on School and Hospital Earthquake Safety in New Delhi May 24-25, 2011. At the workshop, delegates from health and education ministries in India, Bhutan, and Nepal, as well as representatives from regional and international organizations provided information on the current progress toward school and hospital earthquake safety in the region and identified key seismic safety needs, including:
- Better earthquake safety policies
- Assessment and strengthening of existing buildings
- Good design and quality control for new buildings
- Better enforcement and accountability measures
- Better awareness generation efforts
- Mechanisms to address private hospitals and schools
- Greater community involvement
Summary Report of the Regional Workshop
TIn addition to the regional workshop, GHI will hold national workshops, smaller consultations with key stakeholders, and focused interactions with stakeholder working groups to assist in the development of the draft national action plans. The draft national action plans, which will advance the improvement of education and healthcare infrastructure, will not only save lives and reduce suffering, but will also prevent avoidable losses of hard-fought development gains when an earthquake strikes. Seismic safety is key to ensuring the sustainability of the region's development.
This project was made possible by support from the World Bank's Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery.
ANTICIPATED RESULTS
- One regional consultation workshop to assess the status of school and hospital earthquake safety efforts in the region
- Two national consultation workshops to gather input for draft action plans
- Two draft national action plans on school and hospital earthquake safety
- Improved education and healthcare infrastructure
