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Chiang Rai school fortified with quake defences

CHIANG RAI — Three years ago, Chiang Rai experienced one of the most powerful earthquakes in Thailand’s history.

Residents inspecting a flattened building a day after a 6.3-magnitude quake struck the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai in May 2014. Following the natural disaster, Chumchon Ban Pong School, in Chiang Rai’s Mae Suai district, has been reinforced to better withstand earthquakes. Photo: AFP

Residents inspecting a flattened building a day after a 6.3-magnitude quake struck the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai in May 2014. Following the natural disaster, Chumchon Ban Pong School, in Chiang Rai’s Mae Suai district, has been reinforced to better withstand earthquakes. Photo: AFP

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CHIANG RAI — Three years ago, Chiang Rai experienced one of the most powerful earthquakes in Thailand’s history.

The 6.3-magnitude quake shook Phan district in 2014, leaving several unreinforced buildings damaged, with some entirely demolished.

Now, thanks to efforts to make buildings safer, a school building about 50km from the epicentre of the 2014 quake has reinforced pillars.

Chumchon Ban Pong School, in Chiang Rai’s Mae Suai district, is one of four schools included in a non-profit project to reinforce buildings in earthquake-prone areas at low cost.

The project aims to show government and private organisations that reinforcing buildings to withstand earthquakes can be done relatively cheaply, said Associate Professor Sutat Leelatavivat, head of the civil engineering department at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi.

Mr Sutat said that the reinforcements mainly involved strengthening the school building’s pillars to minimise swaying during an earthquake.

“The technology is not overly complicated, and can be replicated after the training (of engineers) has been conducted,” Mr Sutat said. “We hope that this structure will serve as a reference point for government and private organisations to make further developments.” It costs about 1.5 million baht (S$61,540) to reinforce the school.

He added that Chumchon Ban Pong School’s building structure is similar to that of several public schools in Thailand. He said if other organisations can see how buildings can be reinforced to withstand earthquakes more efficiently, further reinforcements will be more likely down the road.

Another three schools under the development programme are in Chiang Rai’s Mae Chan district and Chiang Mai’s Muang district. The four schools are selected based on their proximity to active fault lines and similarity in building structure.

The project is helmed by organisations from Singapore and Thailand. Temasek Foundation International, a non-profit organisation under Temasek Holdings in Singapore, was the main sponsor in generating funds for the project.

According to Mr Gerald Yeo, Temasek Foundation International’s director of programmes and partnerships, the foundation has spent about US$430,000 (S$587,000) on earthquake safety in Thailand. The expenses include training programmes for 60 engineers.

According to the Department of Mineral Resources, there are 14 areas in Thailand with active fault lines, with the majority in the north and west, located close to each other, all with the potential to cause strong earthquakes.

The head of the development project, Professor Pennung Warnitchai, who is the head of the civil and infrastructure engineering department at the Asian Institute of Technology, said that the fault lines running under Thailand’s northern and western regions can potentially cause strong earthquakes measuring a magnitude of 7 or more.

“We used to think that disasters like the one in 2014 would not occur in Thailand,” he observed, “but public and local perspectives changed once the quake actually struck.”

A local at tambon (subdistrict) Bang Pong, who has a grandchild enrolled in Chumchon Ban Pong School, recalled his experience of the quake three years ago. “The houses were shaking from side to side,” he said. “Some houses didn’t have cracks afterwards, but I remember feeling the actual quakes.”

Other organisations taking part in the project include the Asian Institute of Technology, Temasek Foundation International, Nanyang Technological University, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Chiang Mai University, the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning and the Thailand Research Fund. BANGKOK POST

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