CHAN:
Sadly, the death toll from the May 12th earthquake in China continues to climb.  Many of the dead were children in schools which easily collapsed. Now, one Hong Kong engineering expert says most of China's poorly-designed school buildings were constructed without earthquake resistant features and could even collapse in heavy rainstorms.

STORY:
Substandard public buildings, such as schools, collapsed like a house of cards following May 12th's massive earthquake. Thousands of children paid the price for substandard construction, while many other buildings remained standing after the quake.

The quake struck the populous southwestern Sichuan province, and so far has killed more than 51,000 people. Officials predict this number will climb as rescuers continue combing through the rubble.

Scores of high-profile cases of hundreds of children being killed instantly or buried beneath their schools has fuelled anger from parents who have accused authorities of cutting costs and failing to meet safety standards.

Last week, the housing minister conceded that cost-cutting may have played a part in lax standards.

Bloggers and state media have also raised questions, after pictures surfaced of collapsed schools surrounded by relatively unscathed buildings.

Professor Chack Fan Lee, Chair of Geotechnical Engineering of Hong Kong University reported that many buildings in China were so badly designed they could even collapse in a rainstorm.

[Professor Chack Fan Lee, Chair of Geotechnical Engineering of Hong Kong University]:
"To be very honest, in some of the poorer areas of the country, some of these schools and buildings, even without an earthquake, a rainstorm you know? Some of these buildings could collapse. And particularly some of these old buildings, including school buildings. I don't think it's a matter of inferior material being used; it's just that the standard of designing, construction hasn't met with the stringent requirement set by the national building corp."

Professor Lee, who has visited Sichuan Province several times before the earthquake, says there was an urgent need to improve building design for schools in China.

In China, many families have only one child, due to the country's strict one-child policy introduced in the late 1970s. That means that more often than not, many parents here have lost their only child to lax building standards.