China to move tens of thousands for huge water scheme
Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Paul Tait (Reuters) – China will move 345,000 people, mostly poor villagers, within about two years to make way for a vast scheme to draw on rivers in the south to supply the increasingly dry north, an official newspaper said on Tuesday. The forced resettlement for the South-to-North Water Transfer Project will be the biggest China has undertaken since building the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s biggest hydroelectric scheme, said the People’s Daily. The project involves an eastern route to take water from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and a central route to tap rivers flowing into the Danjiangkou Dam in central China. The scheme has been troubled by delays, cost increases, pollution and the burden of resettling displaced farmers. Zhang Jiyao, the official in charge of the project, said the mass move for the central route could be more demanding than the Three Gorges Dam move, which sparked years of contention with displaced residents unhappy with compensation and conditions. “The intensity of the resettlement will surpass that of the Three Gorges Dam Project, because that involved a million migrants over about 10 years, and the resettlement for the South-to-North Water Transfer Project must be completed in over two years,” the paper quoted Zhang as saying. … North China has about half the country’s population but 19 percent of its fresh water resources. Industrial and urban growth have strained the nation’s rivers and underground reserves, according to official estimates. …
