Less than one percent of buildings in Malaysia are built according to specifications that take earthquakes into consideration, said Assoc Prof Taksiah Abdul Majid, supervisor of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)'s Disaster Research Unit.

Taksiah, who is a leading researcher in earthquakes, said from the unit's research most buildings did not take the earthquake factor into consideration assuming that Malaysia was not exposed to the risk of earthquakes.

"Malaysia rarely experiences strong earthquakes and that factor causes many specifications for building construction to pay not much attention to earthquakes.

"However, we cannot be complacent as Kuala Lumpur is just 300km from Sumatra which frequently experiences strong earthquakes," she said.

She said among buildings that followed specifications related to earthquakes were the Kuala Lumpur Twin Towers, the Penang Bridge and the Komtar building.

Taksiah said her unit was preparing building guidelines to be forwarded to the government in efforts to ensure that every building took into consideration the risk of earthquakes.

"The guidelines have been drawn up and are in the process of final checking before being forwarded to parties involved and so that proactive steps towards preventing an unforseen incident can be implemented," she said.

Five main research fields

Meanwhile, acting vice-chancellor, Prof Omar Osman, who was also present said the establishment of the unit at USM was meant to consolidate USM's expertise in various disciplines.

He said the unit had 10 researchers and would focus on five main research fields including tsunamis and their effect on the community; safe building structures; spread of disease; landslides; as well as floods and heavy rains.

"Maybe such research has been done elsewhere but the difference with USM is we consolidate research disciplines that before this were separated and did not have links with each other," he said.

According to him the time had come for a detailed study on the preparedness of Malaysia to face natural disasters.

Omar said the setting up of the unit involved experts from the fields of biology, housing, building, planning, materials engineering, drainage, mineral resources and civil engineering.

"USM has expertise in specific fields that have long conducted research in their respective fields and with the unit they can interact more easily and move forward with research that was more comprehensive," he said. - Bernama