Amber Wang -
Taiwan has built itself a reputation for cutting-edge technology, efficient public transport and safe streets. But an earthquake has again highlighted the island’s history of shoddy construction and questionable safety standards.
It has become a familiar sight. A quake strikes Taiwan, rattling homes and nerves but leaving most of the epicentre intact, except for one or two isolated spots where it strikes with deadly force.
Usually the collapsed buildings are old, built before Taiwan brought in better building codes, and still have not been reinforced.
For many there is a grim sense of deja vu.
Two years earlier, on February 6, 2016, a quake of the same magnitude hit the city of Tainan.
Again most of the city’s buildings successfully bore the brunt of the shockwaves coursing through the ground. But one apartment block collapsed, killing 117 people.
Prosecutors said there were flaws in the building, including inadequate steel reinforcement bars.
Five people were found guilty and sentenced to five years of imprisonment over the disaster, including the developer and two architects. New building codes were brought in after a 1999 earthquake left 2,400 people dead.
The codes put in place stricter requirements to make structures more quake-proof, including increasing the number and resilience of reinforcing bars.
But many say enforcement remains patchy.
Cheng Ming-chang, former head of the Tainan Civil Engineers Association in southern Taiwan, said the “biggest barrier” to quake preparation was funding to reinforce the older buildings.
“People who live in older buildings tend to be less well-off. Even though they are aware of safety issues, they feel like there’s nothing they can really do and they either take an ‘ostrich attitude’ and ignore it or they just choose to move to a new place,” he said.
In the last three decades Taiwan has gone from an impoverished military dictatorship to a thriving democracy and one of Asia’s wealthier societies. But the island is still blighted by a reputation for cost-cutting shortcuts and a cultural disregard for safety standards.
During her successful election campaign in 2016 President Tsai Ing-wen promised to prioritise building safety and review the resistance of older buildings to quakes and other disasters.
Chern Jenn-chuan, a civil engineering professor at National Taiwan University, said the government needs to spearhead safety improvements because many people are complacent and reluctant to spend money on reinforcement. —AFP
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