Unplanned urbanisation and absence of building code enforcement are the two fundamental drawbacks against achieving a Dhaka resilient to disasters, said officials at a three-day workshop in the capital yesterday.

The city is also plagued by perennial traffic congestion and urban flooding, posing potential challenge to making it resilient, said Dr Tariq Bin Yusuf, a superintending engineer of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).

Citing the Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme findings of 2009, Tariq said a 7.5 magnitude earthquake near Modhupur fault would cause 16,000 instant deaths and damage 75,218 buildings in Dhaka.

Brig Gen Md Jubayer Salehin, chief engineer of DNCC, said managing a disaster of this proportion would be a mammoth challenge, particularly with inadequate open spaces and absence of building code enforcement.

The workshop -- on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction action plan -- was organised by DNCC and United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), with support from World Bank and the European Commission.

There are various systems that make up a city and there should be a system of systems to make a city resilient to disasters, said Tejas Tamobhid Patnaik, a representative of UNISDR.

The campaign launched in 2010 is a three-year initiative by UNISDR and UN-Habitat as part of implementing Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The Sendai Framework is a 15-year, voluntary, non-binding agreement which recognises that the State has the primary role to reduce disaster risk but that responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders, according to UNISDR.

The UN initiative along with its partners has been working on 20 high-risk cities -- six from Asia and Pacific, in which Dhaka is one -- to help implement plans on disaster risk reduction and resilience.

DNCC panel mayor Md Jamal Mustafa was present among others.