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Roundup: Ecuadorian president blames shoddy construction for rising quake death toll

Xinhua, April 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said Monday local governments were responsible for the poor construction of some buildings that collapsed in Saturday's earthquake, which had claimed 413 lives as of Monday afternoon.

The latest Ministry of Security Coordination figures showed that the 7.8-magnitude quake had injured 2,658 people, and 231 others were still missing.

"Many buildings fell due to bad construction. This is the responsibility of local governments," Correa told the press.

"We would draw lessons for the future from this painful experience," and ask the country to "be far more rigorous in following construction norms" and "to construct buildings that could withstand earthquakes," noted the president.

He said that after the powerful 7.3-magnitude quake in Haiti in 2010, the international community had begun recommending far more stringent building norms, which have been applied in Ecuador since 2014.

"Before this, we had seriously precarious buildings, which is why the damage is so severe," said Correa.

Meanwhile, rescue efforts have been intensified with the arrival of international rescue teams from Latin America and beyond. On Monday, five were found alive in the rubble of the Navarrete commercial center in the hard-hit town of Manta.

But as time runs out, the majority of families with missing ones have grown increasingly desperate.

On Monday, the Ecuadorian Red Cross said it had received 320 individual requests seeking to find missing people in the provinces of Manabi and Esmeraldas.

By Monday afternoon, 12 of the requests had been successfully answered, Red Cross national coordinator Juan Jose Alencastro told the El Comercio daily.

More requests were coming in from Ecuadorians living abroad in countries including Cuba and Venezuela, according to Alencastro.

In the meantime, people were encouraged to donate more urgently needed items, such as water, food, diapers and toys, instead of clothes.

Saturday's earthquake was the strongest to hit Ecuador since 1979. The Latin American country is located in a region with frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Endi