Chinese officials said that hasty construction of more than 1,000 schools in Sichuan province may have contributed to the collapse of the buildings during May's devastating earthquake.
The acknowledgment Thursday sheds more light on the government's investigation into whether problems with building quality led to tens of thousands of deaths when the quake struck, including those of students killed when they were trapped under collapsed schools.
'More than 1,000 schools had various problems,' said Ma Zongjin, director of the National Wenchuan Earthquake Expert Committee. 'Their structure wasn't necessarily entirely rational, their materials weren't necessarily very strong. These are all possibilities.'
Mr. Ma said the buildings, including children's homes, schools and government construction, had 'no chance of resisting the earthquake' because they were located on the fault line with the strongest earthquake activity.
The 7.9-magnitude quake hit Sichuan May 12, and nearly 70,000 have been confirmed dead, with about 18,000 more people missing. Last weekend, about 310 miles south of the site of May's quake, another one, with a magnitude of 5.7, killed at least 40 people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes.
Mr. Ma said the Ministry of Construction has sent more than 2,000 experts to inspect the May disaster, which has prompted protests and questions among many parents about whether shoddy construction led to the deaths of their children. In particular, parents of the students who died called for further investigation and blamed lax construction standards and government corruption for the collapses.
The questions about school construction have emerged as the most politically sensitive issue stemming from the quake. Local officials have offered many families who lost children compensation in the form of an $8,500 one-time payment, and additional funds once they retire, in exchange for agreeing not to speak out and press for government inquiries. Officials didn't give further information on the offers.
The current investigation is meant to improve the government's understanding as schools and other public buildings are rebuilt, Mr. Ma said. 'Because of this, the government and other responsible departments hope that after extensive investigation we can ascertain in what areas we should build school buildings as well as health systems,' he said. 'We need to consider how to handle location, quality of materials and people responsible for construction.'
Shi Peijun, vice director of the expert committee, estimated that economic and property losses from the quake totaled $123 billion and that it will take three years to rebuild and restore jobs and services. In July, the central government said it would allocate $332 million specifically to aid rebuilding, renovating and resupplying schools to the quake-hit areas.
'The families of children in the schools...the education system and indeed people across the country are very concerned about this matter,' Mr. Ma said.
Separately, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that He Guoqiang, secretary of the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said Thursday that any embezzlement or corruption in the use of quake relief would be severely punished, in an effort to make the relief process transparent. 'The source, quantity and description of the goods and funds should be made public in a timely fashion,' Mr. He was quoted as saying.
Loretta Chao / Jason Dean |
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