From what I understand the types of construction prevalent in this part of the world are basically deathtraps in an earthquake.
Causality figures likely to be well beyond current estimates.
*puts on structural engineering hat*
The usual causes of poor seismic performance in underdeveloped regions are the ones most people can understand: it's a combination of underdeveloped building codes (i.e. the code doesn't prescribe the necessary detailing to produce a seismically performant building), shoddy construction (i.e. cutting corners and not building per the drawings), and questionable building design (i.e. building layout introduces inherent vulnerabilities in the structure, such as having a taller ground floor).
Given how these conditions typically occur simultaneously in poor countries, it's hard to blame them when earthquakes don't happen often enough for people to take them seriously. Cheap construction outweighs paying more for that once in a lifetime risk. Unfortunately, when a big one does happen and you have loss of life, it's already too late. The saddest part is that when they clear the rubble and start to rebuild, the quality of construction is not likely going to be any better than what it replaced. Even over in California where I operate, getting the public to start thinking about earthquakes is a tough sell because of how seldom big ones happen. There's a ton of buildings within major cities out here on the west coast that were built prior to building codes with modern-ish seismic provisions. Convincing building owners to spend money to retrofit them gets political because they don't want to bear the cost, yet their tenant(s) would obviously sue them if something were to happen. As a result, seismic retrofits rarely happen voluntarily.
For these reasons, ironically enough, the best thing that can happen for earthquake awareness is a major earthquake. Once it happens and there's severe consequences, you have to strike while the iron is hot to roll out sweeping legislation to 1) improve the design of new buildings via any lessons learned by surveying the buildings damaged in the seismic event and 2) mandate the seismic retrofit of any remaining vulnerable buildings.
*puts back on PC hardware enthusiast hat*
earthquake.usgs.gov
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