China fights quake lakes, probes collapsed schools

By Tyra Dempster

DUJIANGYAN, China (Reuters) - A local official in Sichuan province withdrew from the prestigious Olympics torch relay as "atonement" for construction problems at collapsed schools, even as rescuers battled rain, lakes and chemicals in the aftermath of the devastating May 12 earthquake.

Thousands of the quake's victims were children, killed when schools collapsed. Inspectors have taken samples of rubble to see if shoddy construction material was used.

Lin Qiang, vice inspector of the Sichuan provincial educational department, said collapsed buildings might have been more solid "if we educational officials hadn't left loopholes for corruption", according to the official Xinhua news agency.

He withdrew as torch bearer in the torch relay currently snaking around China before the August Olympic Games.

The death toll from the 7.9 magnitude quake is over 68,500 and is certain to rise further, with 20,000 missing. Aftershocks have toppled 420,000 houses, most already uninhabitable.

The massive reconstruction work has only just begun, and survivors are threatened by "quake lakes", formed by landslides, that could burst and flood downstream towns and dams.

The Finance Ministry has funneled an extra 1 billion yuan ($144.2 million) into relief work on an estimated 35 dangerous lakes formed by landslides, in addition to 400 million yuan already allotted to work on smaller, damaged dams.

China has evacuated more than 150,000 people living below the biggest of the quake lakes at Tangjiashan. It was created when landslides blocked the Jianjiang river above Beichuan, near the epicentre.

About 5,000 tons of chemicals, including sulfuric and hydrochloric acid, were moved out from downstream, media said.

The danger posed by chemicals was shown on Thursday, when rain-soaked bags of disinfectant chlorine erupted in caustic, billowing smoke, injuring eight paramilitary police in Beichuan.

WALL OF WATER

Rain has hampered efforts by more than 600 soldiers to open a giant sluice to discharge floodwaters. Helicopters shipping in equipment were unable to take off, and some 1,000 soldiers had to carry in 10 tons of diesel by foot to fuel bulldozers there.

About 133,000 troops and armed police are in the disaster area, said Lu Dengming of the Chengdu Military Area Command.

Heavy rains could further complicate rescue work by swelling the lakes, triggering mudflows, and adding to the misery of 5 million left homeless. Elsewhere in southern and central China, rains and flashfloods killed 57 this week.

Alexander Densmore, a seismologist at Durham University in Britain, said any break in a quake lake would likely be sudden.