In the last year the huge task involved in protecting our fellow-citizens from earthquake risks in Europe has again been demonstrated. Three fatal earthquakes have occurred in EAEE countries: in Molise Italy on 31.10.02; in Bingol, Turkey on 1.5.03, and in Boumerdes and surrounding towns in Algeria on 30.5.03. The Molise event killed 29, the Bingol event killed about 200, and we now know that the Algerian event killed over 2500. Worse than this, in two of these earthquakes - Molise and Bingol - the majority of the victims were school-children, killed in the collapse of school buildings belonging to the government. In Algeria too, public buildings did not escape: early reports stated that one hospital had collapsed.
Each of these events will have brought cruelly-learnt lessons to the country concerned; raising questions both about its own regulations and the control of its building industry. In Italy, there has been a sudden spurt of progress in bringing forward new legislation, long urged by the scientific community, for extending the zones covered by earthquake codes to areas known to have an active seismicity but not previously covered; and in Turkey, the event will have brought new impetus to already-formed plans to improve building control and to evaluate vulnerable buildings in high risk areas such as Istanbul.
In whichever European country we live, the public cannot have failed to be affected by the images of misery and despair which the news reporting of these events brought to their television screens. But, on the positive side, the public exposure of the earthquake risk problem provides those of us concerned with earthquake protection with a “window of opportunity” for making progress in reducing risks throughout Europe. Surprisingly, there is no country in Europe in which there is a law or regulation in place which requires all buildings, or even all public buildings, in high-risk areas to be examined, evaluated against likely earthquakes, and strengthened if found wanting. We need and deserve this much government attention and the resources to match it; and perhaps these tragic events of 2002/03 provide us with the window of opportunity which is required to set this process in motion.
Robin Spence