Ethiopian Cities Unprepared For Earthquakes

Addis Ababa and other major cities in Ethiopia, unprepared for earthquakes, can learn from cities in India, Greece, Turkey and Taiwan that experienced devastating earthquakes in the past 5 years.

1 minute read

April 24, 2002, 1:00 PM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech


"It is interesting to note that Ethiopian building officials and engineers can learn a lot from their counter-parts in other parts of the world like India, Greece, Turkey and Taiwan that experienced devastating earthquakes in the past 5 years. All these countries, like Ethiopia, do have strict seismic codes of standard but were not able to implement them well due to various reasons varying from poor quality-control and poor enforcement to inadequate or no construction supervision. More interestingly, the reinforced concrete high-rise buildings that have mushroomed in Ethiopia's major cities over the past 20 years or so share very identical design and construction characteristics with their counter-parts in these countries. "

Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan

Tuesday, April 23, 2002 in Africa News Service

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