A new assessment of global earthquake fatalities over the past three decades indicates that 83 per cent of all deaths caused by the collapse of buildings during earthquakes occurred in countries considered to be unusually corrupt.
The study also found that in some relatively wealthy countries where knowledge and sound business practices would be expected to prevail, the collapse of many buildings is nevertheless attributable to corrupt building practices.
The study was authored by Prof Nicholas Ambraseys of the Imperial College of London and Prof Roger Bilham of the University Colorado at Boulder.
CORRUPTION INDEX
The authors used data gathered by Transparency International (TI), an organisation based in Berlin that operates through more than 70 national chapters around the world.
TI annually generates a Corruption Perception Index, or CPI, based on expert assessments and opinion surveys.
A CPI score of 0 indicates a highly corrupt nation with zero transparency, while a score of 10 indicates an absence of perceived corruption with total transparency.
India stood 87 {+t} {+h} in the year 2010 rankings with a CPI score of 3.3. China was not too far better with a score of 3.5 and Pakistan had a score of 2.3.
The authors determined that there is roughly a one-to-one relationship between a nation's wealth and its perceived level of corruption.
HAITI Trembler
“Less wealthy nations are the most corrupt,” says Prof Bilham.
“We found that fully 83 per cent of all deaths from earthquakes in the last 30 years have occurred in nations where corruption is both widespread and worse than expected.”
The authors noted that while a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck New Zealand in 2010 resulted in zero fatalities, an identical quake in Haiti in 2010 resulted in the death toll reaching six figures.
The global construction industry, currently worth $7.5 trillion annually and which is expected to double in the next decade, is recognised by experts as being the most corrupt segment of the world economy, said the authors.
SAFE PRACTICE
Since 1980, deaths due to an absence of effective earthquake engineering activity have averaged about 18,300 per year, according to the authors.
Poverty and poor education also contribute to building collapses through a lack of strong building materials and a lack of education that otherwise would help guide safe building practices, the authors said.
The number of deaths attributable to collapsed dwellings is influenced both by the population density and the vulnerability of buildings near earthquake epicentres, said the authors
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