Savar tragedy

How could a multi-storied building be raised without permission? Is our government sleeping? Has the government taken any action against those who are responsible for this tragedy?

The tragic building collapse that caused the deaths of probably few hundred innocent people appears to be a text-book example of failure of pile foundation due to down drag (negative skin friction).

The owners of the building reportedly advertised in the newspapers that 60 feet long piles were driven for the foundation. As reported in the press (Prothom Alo, April 12, 2005 internet edition), about 30 feet of filling has been placed on the eastern part of the site to fill up a pond or "jheel". The recently placed 30 feet high fill is causing the settlement of the several feet of soft soil in the bed of the pond, while the 30 feet loosely placed fill itself is settling under its own weight. It is thus very much possible that about 40 feet of the upper portion of the 60 feet long pile was not contributing to any load carrying capacity. More importantly, this upper 40 feet portion of the pile was subjected to negative skin friction (down drag) as part of the weight of the surrounding settling soil was transferred to the pile. The actual load carrying capacity of the piles was being generated from the skin friction of only the lower 20 feet of the 60 feet long pile together with the tip resistance.

The load carrying capacity of the piles was thus barely adequate to carry the negative skin friction (down drag) load and there was probably very little pile capacity left to carry the load of the 9-storey building. It thus appears that the building collapse was due to foundation failure, as the potential for negative skin friction (down drag) on the piles under the site condition was not recognised, and it led to the tragic loss of human lives.

Shawkat Ali Orlando, Florida, US

The collapse of the nine storey garment factory at Savar with hundreds of people dead and still trapped beneath the rubbles is a glaring example of our inefficiency, lack of equipment and manpower and above all poor planning to salvage only one collapsed building. God forbid, in the event of a major earthquake( Bangladesh is in the danger zone) how will we be able to tackle the situation when the human and material casualties will be much, much higher? Have our authorities given any thoughts on that?

If we are not capable of salvaging one collapsed building , then why we are hesitant to seek help from our neighbours? what's so shameful about that? At least the death toll would have been less!! Or will we uphold the dignity of our country by letting those poor, innocent dedicated workers die in the name of "desher bhaab murti noshto holo rey"!!

Waheeda Toronto, Canada

The government does not appear to have taken the deaths of Savar garment factory workers seriously. Instead, celebrations for Pahela Baishakh went ahead. To add insult to injury a senior minister is reported to have spoken out supporting the owner of the apparently illegally built factory. A major part of Bangladesh's foreign exchange earnings come from the sweat of the garment factory workers. The government and the nation should pay homage to the unfortunate victims. The cause of the collapse should be investigated and the culprits punished without fear.

Family members of the victims should receive adequate compensation.

Ahmed Khaled Auckland, New Zealand

I was very shocked to watch the channel I late night news recently. My heart bled to see it. The news showed that hundreds of innocent poor people were in between life and death in Savar where the building collapsed!

Some one's wife, some one's mom, some one's sister were crying for their beloved dear ones.

They did not even know whether their relatives were dead or alive! All they could do was to scream!

Cantara Wali Ruhi BBA, Dept of Mgmt, DU