The series of small earthquakes that were felt in Israel in recent weeks has pushed Israel's natural disaster readiness front and center, but a report by the Knesset Research and Information Center warns that the state has actually grossly neglected earthquakes readiness nationwide.
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The study, compiled at the request of United Torah Judaism MK Yisrael Eichler has found that there is virtually no seismic strengthening of existing buildings, which could spell a catastrophe in the event of a massive quake.
Focusing on Tama 38 – the acronym by which the national outline plan for reinforcing buildings against earthquakes is known – the study has found that only 70 buildings directly on the Great Rift Valley have been reinforced.
According to estimates by the Housing and Construction Ministry, there are about 80,000 three-story buildings in Israel that need reinforcement. They house about 810,000 apartments.
In addition, according to assessments by the inter-ministerial steering committee for earthquake readiness, in the event of a strong earthquake, in addition to injuries, about 28,600 buildings may be severely damaged or leveled altogether, and about 290,000 buildings would sustain medium or minor damage.
The steering committee further pegged the number of buildings that must be reinforced in 10 cities in areas prone to earthquakes is 1,871 buildings that house 36,758 apartments, which are also in need of missile protection reinforcement.
The cost of the said undertaking is estimated at 3.9 billion shekels ($1.2 billion), the committee said.
"This is a total and utter failure," Eichler said. "We have been sitting for years on the Subcommittee for Home Front Defense, talking about earthquakes and the need to reinforce buildings, and it is unbelievable that absolutely nothing has been done."
The Knesset Research and Information Center further found that since the rollout of the Tama 38 plan in 2005, only 1,337 – 1.7% – of all high-risk buildings in Israel have been reinforced. Some 76% of the buildings that have been reinforced for earthquakes are in central Israel and 5% in the northern and southern districts.
In 2019, the government decided to shelve the national seismic strengthening plan by the end of 2022, citing its failure to promote its goal to the required extent, and its inapplicability in peripheral localities, where it is actually needed the most.
The plan also failed to meet its goals as a vehicle for urban rejuvenation, partly due to a lack of planning and, in doing so, a lack of response to the needs of the infrastructure and public buildings that its implementation would require.
In November 2020, the government established a team to examine complementary tools to encourage the earthquakes reinforcement of residential buildings at-risk areas in the periphery.
According to the decision, the inter-ministerial team, headed by the director-general of the Interior Ministry, will recommend to the government the necessary course of action to encourage the seismic reinforcement of residential buildings built before 1980, in high-risk areas in the periphery.
Still, the Knesset's report casts doubt on the plan's feasibility, mostly because it does not detail the type of plans that would be acceptable or how they could be worked into existing urban rejuvenation schemes.
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