By Lindsay Beck
CHENGDU, China (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao madehis third trip to the earthquake zone on Thursday to inspect aswelling "quake lake" as China looked to the future, planningreconstruction of schools, homes and hospitals reduced torubble.
Troops have been trying to defuse threats from dozens ofunstable lakes in the mountainous southwestern province ofSichuan formed by landslides triggered by the May 12 quake,choking rivers and endangering hundreds of thousands of peopledownstream.
Historically, more than 90 percent of lakes formed byearthquakes burst their dams when floods hit, Xinhua quoted LiuNing, a leading engineer, as saying.
Water levels on the largest, Tangjiashan, had risen to738.71 metres (2,440 feet) above sea level and the chance ofthe natural dam made of mud and rock bursting was increasing,Xinhua said.
"Now it's a critical moment for the Tangjiashan quake lake,and the most important thing is to ensure there are nocasualties," Wen was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
More than 250,000 people have been evacuated in Beichuancounty and Mianyang city in line with a contingency plan.
In Jiangyou, troops checked evacuated towns door to door tomake sure no villagers returned, Xinhua said.
An aftershock measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale hitQingchuan county to the northeast on Thursday, it said. About6,000 county residents were urgently evacuated to avoid thethreat of landslides with heavy rain forecast.
Hanwang, one of the hardest-hit towns, was also evacuatingthousands to safe ground as likely rain over the weekend raisedfears of more landslides and the bursting of dams.
The quake killed 69,127 people with 17,918 more missing,according to the latest official figures.
More than 15 million residents have been displaced and tentcities have been going up across the ravaged region as theusually sweltering summer settles in, making life far fromcomfortable and raising fears of epidemics.
SAFETY STANDARDS
The State Council, or cabinet, looked to the future,passing draft regulations on reconstruction, outliningrequirements for resettlement sites and safety standards ofpublic buildings, such as schools and hospitals.
Vice Housing Minister Qi Ji told a news conference thegovernment's goal to build 1 million pre-fabricated housingunits within three months was an "arduous task" facing manyproblems.
In one of the most poignant dramas unfolding after thedisaster, tension has flared between local officials andparents whose children were killed in school collapses.
More than 9,000 children and teachers died under schoolbuildings, according to figures compiled by Reuters and, insome villages, schools disintegrated while surroundingbuildings survived intact.
But Qi denied that there had been a disproportionate numberof school collapses.
"I don't see it this way, because in the quake area notonly schools collapsed, but other public buildings and homesalso collapsed," he said when asked to comment if the schoolswere built to lower safety and quality standards.
The annual National College Entrance Exams for high schoolstudents are scheduled to start across the country on Saturday,but they have been postponed for a month for about 96,000teenagers in 40 quake-hit counties in Sichuan.
(Writing by Guo Shipeng; Editing by Nick Macfie)
