SHILLONG: A landslide is a common disaster in Meghalaya and other northeastern states.
Every year, several lives are lost due to landslides the most recent being the death of six persons, including a two-year-old girl, in Ri Bhoi and East Khasi Hills last week after incessant rainfall.
However, the question is whether natural disasters like landslides can be prevented.
The Shillong Times visited different parts of the city and spoke with government officials to find out the ground reality.
Shillong, in the past few decades, has witnessed an unplanned urbanisation with people risking their lives in many cases. Many citizens are building houses even on steep slopes without considering the risks involved.
An official in the Revenue and Disaster Management Department admitted that the Government so far has not conducted any mapping of houses built haphazardly on steep slopes prone to landslides.
In an earlier interview with the newspaper, a MUDA official had said there are no statistics on soil, slope and gradient among other things that would help the urban body to predict risk factors accurately before sanctioning a building plan.
With vanishing trees in the city, the topsoil and the subsoil are washed away easily.
Albert Tham, secretary of the Meghalaya Architects Forum, pointed out some of the anomalies in building construction that make a construction vulnerable to maximum damage during disasters like landslides and earthquakes.
“A residential building or apartment is suddenly rented out as a school or private college. The danger is that firstly, the structure probably was not designed to take a larger load. Secondly, in case of a disaster or emergency, the layout plan probably does not entail emergency exits and wide enough corridors. Also, there are buildings with mobile towers on terraces. Was the structure even designed to take additional load,” Tham questioned.
He added that properly designed retaining walls are important.
The Revenue and Disaster Management Department official said on Tuesday the Government has formed the State Disaster Management Authority and even the District Disaster Management Authority, which keep tabs on natural disasters, besides informing the Government about such instances.
The disaster management authorities also organise regular awareness programmes.
So far, landslides have claimed many lives in the State and there is no permanent prevention to the disaster.
In 2014, nine persons were killed in a major landslide at Jhalupara and two were killed at Lamavilla in 2015.
