Public works authorities in Qingdao, Shandong Province, refuted claims Tuesday that German engineering efforts during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) were behind the city's long history of effective storm-water management, saying most of city's drainage system was built after 1949.

The coastal city's waste water system has become the subject of heated discussion in recent days after heavy rain in Beijing Saturday caused extensive flooding and resulted in 37 deaths.

In an interview Sunday with the Beijing Times, a representative from Beijing Drainage Group, a State-owned water management firm, alleged that Qingdao's drainage system had been constructed by the Germans, who occupied the city from 1897 to 1914, and can handle at least 100 milliliters of water per hour, much more than the system in Beijing.

However, an official from Qingdao Drainage Administration told local media that only about 3 percent of the drainage facilities currently in use in the city had been designed a century ago by Germans, while most of the 2,900-kilometer drainage system was built after China's liberation.

A press officer from the administration declined to provide further information about Qingdao's drainage system when reached by the Global Times Tuesday, saying that it is a sensitive matter considering events in Beijing over the weekend.

"The fact that Qingdao is a coastal city has contributed to its good drainage system, because storm water can be dumped into the sea," Li Nansheng, a professor at Shanghai Tongji University who specializes in wastewater engineering, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

An official from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development also told local media that around 70 percent of urban drainage systems in China are only designed to handle 36 milliliters of rain per hour, well below the roughly 100 milliliter per hour that hit certain areas of Beijing.

Beijing is one of many first-tier Chinese cities that are in the process of upgrading sewer facilities. The Chinese capital plans to invest 2 billion yuan ($313.13 million) to modify 300 kilometers of its drainage system, according to a report published Tuesday in the China Securities Journal.