Ecuador is a country located in the northwest part of South America and is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. The country sits on the edge of the South American Plate, beside the Nazca Plate, which results in strong earthquakes in the country. Both plates converge with each other, resulting in the subduction of the Nazca Plate with the South American Plate. Ecuador’s infrastructures are usually built on soft soil, specifically alluvium. Alluvium soils are loose and incompact accumulations of sands, silts, clays, or gravels deposited in rivers. Many cities in Ecuador are built on soft soils because these are flat and easy to build. The country also suffers from soil liquefaction, where the soil turns into liquid in response to an earthquake’s sudden movement. With the type of soil Ecuador is built on, it would experience stronger shaking and more damage. The materials used in Ecuador’s infrastructures also have been of poor quality. They are built with unstable materials such as masonry infill walls and flexible reinforced concrete. With more and more people living in slums, it could be a higher risk since people do not have enough money to afford durable and long-lasting materials for their houses. But after the 7.8 Earthquake in Ecuador in 2016, people were appreciating bamboo as it was able to withstand earthquakes and they have realized it after they have seen houses built on bamboo unaffected in the earthquake. They would put a concrete foundation and put the bamboo as its pillars. They also have mixed modern construction materials to assure its durability. Ecuador also established the Earthquake Safety Advisory Board, which is used to monitor and update earthquake risks in the country. The Quito School Earthquake Safety Project was also created to evaluate the building of the schools if it is safe or not. This effects to the improvement of the building so that there will be lesser risk and they would be able to impose safety school measures. In earthquake preparedness, improvement must be made. Some provinces in Ecuador are accustomed to small tremors and the people were not prepared on what to do during an earthquake. Due to these, when powerful earthquakes would strike, this would send people in immediate panic, for they did not know how to deal with it. With weak construction and no awareness, it will produce vast amounts of damage in infrastructures and casualties. In a 2010 poll by El Universo newspaper, 85% of respondents in the cities of Quito and Guayaquil, Ecuador’s main cities stated they were uninformed about instructions on what to do during emergencies, and 40% were completely unaware of what to do during earthquakes. Ecuador’s Red Cross also helped raise awareness about these, but it was not enough because they did not have enough capacity to train people.
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A house in Ecuador with bamboo as
its foundation
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