KABUL(SW):Following damages sustained by a number of residential units in the capital Kabul due to the earthquake on Monday, Ministry of Urban Development Affairs and Housing, said many of these buildings are vulnerable to earthquakes.
The MoUDAH charged that lack of monitoring and evaluation regarding the construction of these buildings have led to the construction of a number of sub-slandered high rise buildings in the capital.
The earthquake, which jolted Afghanistan and a number of countries in the region was measured at 7.7 magnitudes with its epicenter near Fayezabad City in Badakhshan.
Amruddin Salek, the Deputy Minister told Salam Watandar that it remains confusing what government institutions were responsible for monitoring the construction of such buildings. He said still it is unclear it was the task of the Ministry or Kabul Municipality. He said that a specific government body should take the responsibility for monitoring the construction of the high-rise buildings.
Amrullah Ebrahimkheyl, a civil engineer, blamed sub-standard construction of these apartments and a low quality of construction materials for the vulnerability of these buildings to the earthquakes. He added that such buildings could not resist natural disasters like earthquake. He also blamed the government for not monitoring properly these apartments.
Ebrahimkheyl added that if the epicenter of the recent earth quake was Kabul, most residential apartments in the capital would have collapsed and would have killed thousands of citizens here.
He further said that residential towers should be resistant to earthquakes with magnitude of at least 8.
Mazhar Kawyani, a civil engineer and lecture at the Kabul Polytechnic University, told Salam Watandar that most of the buildings in the city are not constructed according to the international standards.
He warned that if the MoUDAH did not monitor the construction process, worst might happen in the future.
Based on the recent reports from Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authorities (ANDMA), as a result of the earthquake on Monday, 80 people lost lives and 300 more were wounded.
The report also indicated that 4400 houses were damaged across 115 districts in 14 provinces in the country.
ENDS
