JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

UWI Seismic Research Centre director: New call for national building code

by

20140624

Di­rec­tor of the St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies' Seis­mic Re­search Cen­tre Dr Richard Robert­son has called for the speedy for­mu­la­tion of a na­tion­al build­ing code to en­sure all build­ings are earth­quake re­silient.In fact, he said, T&T sim­ply could not af­ford to de­lay any fur­ther on the code be­cause sci­en­tists have warned that if a ma­jor earth­quake were to strike lo­cal­ly there would be mass de­struc­tion and loss of lives.

In a phone in­ter­view, Robert­son said, "In the ab­sence of a build­ing code there is a lot of lee­way for peo­ple to con­struct things in any way. You need reg­u­la­tions."Robert­son said in a news re­lease last week that re­cent re­search in­di­cat­ed that eco­nom­ic dam­age of US$5 bil­lion and US$6 bil­lion, re­spec­tive­ly, for Port-of-Spain and San Fer­nan­do could oc­cur as a re­sult of a mag­ni­tude 7.5 earth­quake.

His plea for ur­gency might be of lit­tle ef­fect as it has been two years since the ap­point­ment of the Na­tion­al Build­ing Code Com­mit­tee and funds are yet to be re­leased for the for­mu­la­tion of the code, though Cab­i­net ap­proved $12 mil­lion for the for­mu­la­tion of the code last year. Robert­son said that should be ad­dressed."We are say­ing that the stum­bling blocks need to be moved out of the way so that we could pro­ceed. The longer it takes for us to pro­ceed in this re­gard, the longer it takes to get to the stage where T&T is re­silient.

All the de­vel­op­ment we have hap­pen­ing now, it would be in jeop­ardy in the fu­ture if we do not get these reg­u­la­tions in place, get them en­forced and get peo­ple com­mit­ted to mov­ing for­ward," he lament­ed.Robert­son said the build­ing code was re­al­ly one el­e­ment of a com­pre­hen­sive strat­e­gy need­ed to build re­silience.He said there were lines of ev­i­dence that sug­gest­ed that T&T could have a large po­ten­tial­ly dam­ag­ing seis­mic event which could set it coun­try back.

"Every day that we have not moved for­ward is a day longer than nec­es­sary," he said.He said, in the re­lease, the cur­rent es­ti­mates of seis­mic haz­ard sug­gest­ed the like­li­hood of be­ing killed by an earth­quake in the next 50 years was com­pa­ra­ble to the like­li­hood of be­ing mur­dered in that same pe­ri­od, giv­en the cur­rent mur­der rate and cur­rent es­ti­mate of the seis­mic haz­ard."We need ap­pro­pri­ate build­ing codes backed by leg­is­la­tion. Earth­quakes do not kill peo­ple, build­ings do," Robert­son said

He said T&T was in an area of high earth­quake ac­tiv­i­ty for the Caribbean and sci­en­tif­ic ev­i­dence in­di­cat­ed that the is­lands were like­ly to ex­pe­ri­ence a large-mag­ni­tude earth­quake soon­er rather than lat­er.

Chair­man: com­mit­tee wait­ing on funds

Build­ing code com­mit­tee chair­man Shyankaran Lal­la told the T&T Guardian via SMS, the com­mit­tee was still wait­ing on funds. He said the code was even more crit­i­cal now that the Plan­ning and Fa­cil­i­ta­tion Act would come in­to ef­fect.The act, he said, could not work with­out a build­ing code. "The un­due de­lay in the dis­burse­ment of fund­ing for the de­vel­op­ment of a na­tion­al build­ing code is de­lay­ing the de­liv­ery of the code which sets min­i­mum stan­dards for the pro­tec­tion of the health safe­ty and wel­fare of our cit­i­zens," he said.

Lal­la said the SRC kept warn­ing the coun­try of an im­pend­ing dis­as­ter and it should be tak­en se­ri­ous­ly."Haiti failed to heed warn­ings of seis­mol­o­gists and we all know what the re­sult was. We are for­tu­nate to have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­duce the risk as­so­ci­at­ed with dis­as­ters by de­vel­op­ing and en­forc­ing the re­quire­ments of a build­ing code."We must take ac­tion with a sense of ur­gency be­fore it is too late," he de­clared.

Min­is­ter: Govt com­mit­ted to code

Hous­ing and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal as­sured that Gov­ern­ment was com­mit­ted to the for­mu­la­tion of a na­tion­al build­ing code.He ex­pressed con­fi­dence that the 2014 dead­line for the code would be met."We con­tin­ue to work with the Build­ing Code com­mit­tee. We have had some in­sti­tu­tion­al dif­fi­cul­ties among the state part­ners in re­cent times which led to a slow­ing down of the work, but I am as­sured that by next week we will be on full steam and in­tend to meet our 2014 dead­line," he said via text mes­sage.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

Jaggasar returns as National Parang president

Yesterday
Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Jamaican Maroons celebrate, question land rights

Yesterday
Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford’s holistic mission

to transform the lives of girls

Yesterday
Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Nicole Drayton’s breast cancer journey–Fear, faith, and fighting back

Yesterday