Affected Residents Willing to Move from Three Gorges Site

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, March 03, 2002

Affected Residents Willing to Move from Three Gorges Site

More and more residents at the Three Gorges reservoir area are moving to new homes voluntarily, a National People's Congress (NPC) deputy from the area said Sunday.

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More and more residents at the Three Gorges reservoir area are moving to new homes voluntarily, a National People's Congress (NPC) deputy from the area said Sunday.

Xiong Xiujie, deputy head of Zhongzhou Town in Zhongxian County, Chongqing Municipality, claimed that as high as 70 percent of the affected residents in her town are willingly leaving for other areas to make way for the world's largest water conservation and hydropower project on the Yangtze River.

Xiong is in Beijing with other deputies from all parts of the country to attend the coming NPC annual session.

The Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze will force 1.2 million people to find new homes, the world's largest resettlement project of its kind.

For every migrant, the government offers 40,000 yuan to help them settle down in a new place.

When the migrants arrive, new houses, built by the local government and fitted with basic necessities, are already there waiting for them. They can also find new job opportunities there.

To make this possible, the central government has offered huge financial support to the 11 receiving regions, including Shanghai, Guangdong, Shandong, Zhejiang and other coastal regions.

Each family to move out is allowed to send one person to the new site for inspection, with the government paying the fare.

Government workers also help migrants pack their belongings, rent vessels and arrange for their journeys.

The journeys are set in August, when the hottest weather is over, crops are harvested and school children are in vacation.

"All this is designed to reduce the losses of migrants to the minimum," Xiong said.

Resettlement of residents from Xiong's town began in 1999. Every March, the town's government workers visit the migrants to ensure their interests are well protected.

"In the past people were reluctant to be relocated for they worried about the future. They are going more willingly now because they see hopes in their new homes," Xiong added.

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