KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal today urged everyone to learn the lesson from the earthquake that battered Haiti killing tens of thousands of people.

He also directed the authority concerned to effectively implement the Nepal Building Code to reduce the vulnerability of the earthquake.

PM Nepal said that Nepal’s condition would not be different to that of Haiti if a similar earthquake was to strike. He was addressing the 12th National Earthquake Safety Day celebrated here today with the slogan: ‘Let’s reduce the earthquake risk, enhance the safety of community, and build safer schools, hospitals and houses’.

The function was organised to mark the day, which coincided with the 76th anniversary of the 8.3-magnitude earthquake, which rocked Nepal in 1934, killing at least 8,500 people and flattening a quarter of all buildings and houses.

He cautioned that Nepal has been ranked as the ‘eleventh most at risk’ country in terms of quake vulnerability. With its poorly constructed building, often without the building code, Kathmandu tops the vulnerability chart.

PM Nepal said that the present government is giving top priority to disaster risk management.

He said that the government was spending around Rs 1 billion annually as compensation as well as relief to victims of natural disasters.