Damage at a store on Santo following 7.3 earthquake on Monday, 30 March 2026.
Photo: VBTC’s Rani Taviti
There are questions about building safety standards in the main urban centre in Vanuatu’s north following a big earthquake.
Monday night’s magnitude 7.3 quake hit 35 kilometres northeast of Luganville, the main town on the country’s largest island, Espiritu Santo.
Several people had to be hospitalised for minor injuries, and there was moderate to severe damage to buildings, as well as disruption to public infrastructure.
Public utility services were today slowly being restored in Luganville, according to a provincial disaster officer, Kensly Shem, who said no deaths or serious injuries had been reported yet, and that damage assessments were ongoing.
The government decided to close schools in the province today. Many shops were closed too with collapsed shelves and damaged goods.
Shem said that while electricity service had been restored, water was a different story.
“We still have water outage in Luganville town,” he told RNZ Pacific on Tuesday afternoon.
“The (Northern Provincial) hospital is fifty percent up running, as they’re still waiting for engineers to do assessments on their buildings before they (return to) full operations.”
Items in a store in Santo fell of the shelves following the massive quake.
Photo: VBTC’s Rani Taviti
“We also have a report from the airport that the airstrip has minor cracks, about one centimetre. The assessment is still going on, and also the terminal has a minor crack on it.”
Building standards
Throughout the town, buildings are showing minor surface cracks and broken windows.
But among the most severely damaged buildings is the Sunshine Shopping Centre – one of its tenants, restaurant owner Melinda, said her business had been effectively knocked out of action.
“We need to move to a new place, and relocation or demolition or whatever they want to do,” she said.
One high-profile builder is frustrated with what he sees as a decline in building standards nationwide.
Bradley Wood said it was no coincidence that the worst hit buildings looked like the Sunshine complex.
“As a builder I’m concerned that we’re lowering the standard, and letting the sub-standard buildings get built,” Wood said.
“If that earthquake was any stronger that building would have colllapsed. Had it have been like Port Vila (a 7.3 earthquake in December 2024) it would have looked like one of those buildings that pancaked to the ground, and had it have happened during the day, there’d be a whole lot of people dead.”
A house on Potintir, Central Malekula partially collapsed following the strong quake
Photo: Vanuatu Red Cross
Vanuatu’s government said it was considering reports from local authorities.