Defining Standards for People-Centred Reconstruction

On January 12th 2010, an earthquake measuring
7.0 on the Richter scale struck Haïti, killing
222,570 people. Less than two months later,
on February 28th, a quake measuring a massive
8.8 hit the Concepción region of Chile but killed
562 people. Both earthquakes affected heavily
populated areas so how was it possible that an
earthquake nearly a hundred times stronger led
to 400 times less casualties. A major factor in
this was Chile’s adoption of high quality building
standards that incorporate requirements for
disaster-resistance. These are both applied properly,
and affordable for the Chilean people to comply
with.
Haïti also has standards, but they are more
lenient than those in Chile. Furthermore,
these standards are often poorly implemented,
(with inspection turning a blind eye) and most
importantly unaffordable for the large proportion
of the population to comply with. The lesson from
these two disastrous events is that good building
standards can save lives, but they need to be
properly implemented and inspected, and above all,
affordable.