Official admits "quality problems" of school buildings damaged in Sichuan earthquake
4/9/2008 17:40
There were "quality problems" with some school buildings damaged during
the catastrophic earthquakes in southwest China's Sichuan Province on May 12, an
official said in Beijing today.
The problems could have happened because some
school rooms were built too fast without regard to quality in recent years, Ma
Zongjin, director of the the National Wenchuan Earthquake Expert Committee, said
at a press briefing on the evaluation of the earthquake aftermath.
It is
feared the death toll in the 8.0-magnitude earthquake centered in Wenchuan
County, Sichuan, will top 87,000. Many victims were students killed in collapsed
buildings.
This has aroused wide suspicion and anger over shoddy construction
and substandard materials allegedly used to build schools. The Chinese
government has also promised to investigate the issue.
Various factors might
work jointly to damage thousands of school buildings in the earthquake area,
such as the intensity of the quake, and poor design, Ma said.
For example, if
the roof of a classroom is too wide, it will be too weak to withstand strong
quakes, he said.
Prof. Shi Peijun with the committee said among 845.1 billion
yuan (about US$121 billion) in direct economic losses for the May 12 earthquake,
20.4 percent came from damaged essential public buildings such as schools and
hospitals.
Ma said the Ministry of Construction sent more than 2,000 experts
to areas affected by the earthquake to investigate.
"The earthquake was so
powerful and destructive in some areas that not only school buildings, but
office and residential buildings were all damaged," he said.
But poor design
by architects and the use of substandard building materials might also have
played a role in the massive destruction, he said.
"It is possible there were
problems with those buildings, because there has been a rush of construction of
schools recently, " he said.
Ma said the investigation would provide
guidelines for reconstruction of schools and hospitals in future.
Xinhua
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