Metro Manila urged to prepare for big quake

Arjun Kartoch, head of the Emergency Services Branch of the United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, warned that an earthquake with a magnitude of about 7 to 8 on the Richter scale would hit Manila in the Philippines, at some point in the future.

Mr Kartoch was speaking during the 'World Debate' filmd by the BBC at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction 2009, held in Geneva, Switzerland last week. The forum will be broadcasted worldwide on 4 July 2009 with approximately 80 million viewers. The panelists were Senator Loren Legarda from the Philippines, UNISDR Champion for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, Arjun Kartoch, Guido Bertolaso, head of Italy's Civil Protection Agency, and Edward Borodzicz, professor of risk management at Portsmouth Business School in the United Kingdom.

“Risk reduction is very good and useful, but it should not stop at the point (of disaster),” said Kartoch, who was skeptical of the risk reduction strategy.

“Thank God, the earthquake did not happen,” she said, informing Kartoch that “preparedness is being done (and) we are prepared for that to the limits of our capabilities and resources.”

She said it was unrealistic to relocate now “hundreds of thousands or millions of people” that could be affected.

“But I believe that risk can be reduced,” she said, by investing in disaster preparedness and risk reduction, by building safe hospitals, safe infrastructures, and by conducting risk assessment studies in local government units.