Seyed Mohsen Tabatabaei Mozdabadi who was speaking to the press on Tuesday about raising awareness on earthquake in Tehran, said that despite some academic circles’ belief, evidence indicates that Tehran was not prepared enough to face with earthquake crisis.

“Tehran is one of the earthquake-prone areas tectonically and Alborz faults are active underneath it; however, experiences of pioneer cities such as Tokyo have indicated that earthquake risk can be largely inhibited. Tehran metropolis can be resistant by accelerating renovation and rehabilitation of distressed areas, passive defense training, and crisis management,” he told the press.

“One of the most important weaknesses of crisis management of earthquake is lack of comprehensive renovation and rehabilitation of distressed areas; according to the official definition of a comprehensive plan in Tehran in 2006, there are nearly 17,000 hectares of distressed areas including stable and unstable in Tehran metropolis,” Mozdabadi detailed.

“More than 130,000 urban distressed texture in the country, of which only 13 percent of them have been renovated; 10 to 15 percent of urban areas are distressed across the country,” he lamented.

The official stated that one of the main challenges in renovating distressed areas was lack of citizens’ and private sectors’ participation in such plans which would otherwise contribute to fashioning appropriate solutions; “not long ago, the President underlined preparing legal grounds in order to revive distressed areas as a fundamental step to reduce earthquake risk in most cities, especially Tehran,” he further said.

Source : Mehr News Agency