Spotlight: Ecuador steps up reconstruction effort as LatAm draws lessons from previous quakes

Ecuador has taken a series of tax measures to increase a budget from 2 to 3 billion U.S. dollars to support the country's reconstruction efforts after the latest 7.8-magnitude earthquake.

The measures include levying an income tax equal to one day's salary per month, and a one-time extra tax of 3 percent on utilities, and increasing the sales tax from 12 to 14 percent for one year.

The quake on April 16, which has claimed over 650 lives so far, was the strongest one that has hit the Pacific coastal nation since 1979, and the most deadly one on the continent since the 2010 tremor that killed over 300,000 people in Haiti.

STRICTER CONSTRUCTION REGULATION CRUCIAL

Previous earthquakes in the region have shown that reconstruction could be a long-term mission.

Six years ago, the 7.3-magnitude quake devastated Haiti. Now, many displaced Haitians are still living in tents.

Ecuador is preparing for a long-term reconstruction task, President Rafael Correa said. But besides rebuilding houses, experts say, establishing a stricter construction regulation system is even more crucial for the country.

"Weak buildings are one of the main reasons (for the death toll)," seismologist Gabriela Ponce, head of Ecuador's Geophysical Institute, told Xinhua.

After the Haiti earthquake, Ecuador started to devise stronger construction norms, which came into force in 2014. But as Silverio Duran, president of Ecuador's Construction Chamber of Industry, put it, "the country has no culture of applying construction norms. People do not invest in hiring professionals, which is important and could save their lives."

On April 18, Correa said local governments were responsible for the poor quality of some buildings that collapsed in the quake. "We would draw lessons for the future from this painful experience," he said.

BETTER PRECAUTION, RESPONSE SYSTEM NEEDED

Chile, sitting on the rim of the Pacific seismic belt, has set a good example with regard to anti-quake efforts.

Chile has a nationwide quake-supervising network featuring satellites and power-generating facilities, as well as quake-resistant regulations for house building that are renewed annually. More importantly, its people are consistently updated with anti-disaster knacks and skills.

On Sept. 16, 2015, a quake measuring 8.4 degree on the Richter scale rocked the northern Chilean city of Coquimbo, but only killed 15 people and injured five.

Latin American countries bathe in the Pacific waters known as the "Ring of Fire," one of the most active seismic zones on the planet receiving 80 percent of the world's earthquakes.

Besides Ecuador, Haiti and Chile, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru and Argentina are also quake-prone.

Reconstruction has to be done, but precaution is always the better answer and a perpetual topic for Latin America to explore over generations.

Having an efficient disaster management system is essential for addressing those challenges, said Mexican disaster management consultant Oscar Roa Flores.

"The international standard is to prioritize disaster management, to have the system rely on a cabinet official and make it his only responsibility, not to relegate it to a secondary or third level," Flores said, emphasizing that this official should report directly to the president.

Disaster management is about all officials in all government departments being prepared to tackle a disaster from their respective perspectives, Flores said.

For example, people who are in charge of giving building licenses should be very strict. If it is a seismic zone, then the norms there must be rigid enough to withstand earthquakes of certain magnitudes, added Flores.

"It is a policy that crosses all areas, even the smallest state or government office, and it should be planned, have protocols drawn up and practiced," Flores said. Enditem (Liang Junqian in Quito, Leng Tong in Santiago, Dang Qi in San Jose, Pei Jianrong and Luis Brito in Mexico City also contributed to the stor