When an earthquake is not just a natural disaster: how bad governance multiplies tragedies

Every time an earthquake strikes a country, the headlines focus on magnitude, epicenter, and death toll. However, we rarely ask ourselves a far more uncomfortable question: how many of those victims are truly a consequence of the earthquake, and how many are the result of decades of poor public management?

Because earthquakes are inevitable. The humanitarian catastrophes they leave in their wake, often, are not.

EL PAÍS: Ronald Peña (EFE)

In fact, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) itself has been trying for years to eliminate the concept of "natural disaster." Its argument is clear: earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods are natural hazards; disasters occur when these hazards combine with vulnerability, poverty, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of institutional capacity to prevent and respond. In other words, the hazards are natural; the disasters, to a large extent, are human-made.

The recent earthquake in Venezuela serves as a stark reminder of this reality. More than 1,700 people have lost their lives and thousands have been injured in a country where rescue efforts have been hampered by years of institutional decay, inadequate infrastructure, and a limited response capacity.

Natural disasters are not the same for everyone

An earthquake acts as a stress test for any country. In a matter of seconds, it puts to the test the quality of its buildings, the resilience of its infrastructure, the preparedness of its emergency services, and the responsiveness of its institutions.

That's why two countries can experience an earthquake of similar characteristics and yet have radically different consequences. The difference is rarely solely underground; it usually lies in decades of political, economic, and institutional decisions.

The comparison between Haiti and Japan is perhaps the most illustrative example. In 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti, causing approximately 300,000 deaths and leaving more than 1.5 million people homeless. Just a year later, Japan suffered the magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake, one of the most powerful ever recorded. Although the subsequent tsunami caused a tragedy of enormous proportions, the performance of the infrastructure in the face of the earthquake demonstrated decades of investment in earthquake-resistant building codes, urban planning, early warning systems, and a culture of prevention. The magnitude of the natural phenomenon was far greater; so was the institutional capacity to respond to it.

The roads that allow rapid access to affected areas, the hospitals capable of continuing to function during an emergency, and the buildings designed to withstand seismic activity do not appear by chance. They are the result of public policies sustained over decades.

Venezuela: the visible earthquake of an invisible crisis

The earthquakes recorded in Venezuela have not only tested the resistance of buildings; they have also highlighted the accumulated fragility of a country that has been going through a deep political, economic and institutional crisis for years.

For more than a decade, international organizations have been warning of the progressive deterioration of public services, the mass emigration of healthcare and technical professionals, the aging of infrastructure, and the difficulties in maintaining basic services such as electricity and access to drinking water. All of this has considerably reduced the State's capacity to respond to complex emergencies.

Following the earthquake, numerous citizens complained about the shortage of heavy machinery, the slow pace of rescue operations, and the lack of sufficient resources in some of the hardest-hit areas. Six days after the quake, the official death toll exceeded 1,700, with more than 5,000 injured and tens of thousands of buildings damaged, while search and rescue efforts continued in the rubble.

The earthquake did not create that fragility. It simply exposed it.

More than 1,700 people have lost their lives and thousands have been injured in a country where rescue efforts have been hampered by years of institutional decay, infrastructure deficiencies and a limited response capacity.

When corruption also costs lives

Corruption is usually measured in millions of euros embezzled or contracts awarded irregularly. However, its most serious consequences rarely appear in financial statements.

Every hospital that fails to modernize, every bridge whose maintenance is delayed, every building constructed without respecting regulations, or every weakened technical body represents a silent loss of capacity to protect the population.

The example of Turkey is particularly revealing. Following the devastating earthquakes of 2023, which caused more than 55,000 deaths, numerous experts pointed out that thousands of collapsed buildings either failed to meet seismic standards or had been legalized through successive "building amnesties." Subsequent investigations led to hundreds of legal proceedings against developers and construction companies, reopening the debate about the human cost of corruption and the lack of administrative oversight.

Corruption doesn't cause earthquakes, but it can cause a building to fail to withstand the first one.

Cuba and the cost of silent deterioration

Venezuela is not an isolated case either. Cuba offers another example of how the prolonged deterioration of infrastructure increases a country's vulnerability to any emergency.

Over the past few years, the island has suffered nationwide power outages, difficulties maintaining power plants, an increasingly aging housing stock, and a chronic shortage of building materials. Although these deficiencies only occasionally make headlines, they create a scenario where any hurricane, flood, or earthquake could have far more serious consequences.

Vulnerability doesn't appear overnight. It accumulates slowly, and when an emergency strikes, what seemed like an everyday problem ends up becoming a civil protection issue.

Resilience is also governed

In sustainability, we constantly talk about resilience. We want resilient cities, resilient energy systems, and resilient infrastructure in the face of climate change. However, resilience isn't built when disaster strikes; it's built years in advance.

It is built when investment is made in maintenance instead of waiting to rebuild; when building standards are enforced; when public budgets prioritize prevention; and when institutions operate with transparency and accountability.

Investing in governance is also investing in climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction.

There is no sustainability without strong institutions.

For years we have associated sustainability almost exclusively with environmental protection. However, there is an equally important dimension: the institutional one.

Sustainable development cannot exist where infrastructure deteriorates, public services weaken, and corruption erodes the State's ability to protect its citizens.

That's why Sustainable Development Goal 16 doesn't talk about emissions or biodiversity. It talks about effective, transparent, and accountable institutions. Because without them, any environmental or economic progress ends up being fragile.

Sustainability is not just about preserving the planet. It's also about building states capable of protecting people.

Nature tests countries. Governance decides the outcome.

Earthquakes will continue to occur. So will hurricanes, floods, and other extreme weather events, which will also become increasingly frequent and intense in the context of climate change.

The real difference will not lie solely in the force of nature, but in the ability of states to anticipate, prevent, and respond.

Every school reinforced, every bridge maintained, every hospital modernized, and every public euro managed transparently constitutes, in reality, civil protection policies long before the next emergency arrives.

Because natural disasters are inevitable.

What should never be inevitable is that decades of bad governance multiply their consequences.