100,000 People at Three Gorges Resettled Last YearThe year 2000 saw some 100,000 people in Chongqing Municipality at the Three Gorges on China's longest river of Yangtze resettled for the construction of the world's largest hydropower project, according to a local resettlement official.Liu Fuyin, director of the Chongqing resettlement bureau, said that more than 200 enterprises were also relocated, and a total of 3.26 billion yuan was used for the resettlement of residents and enterprises. In addition, governmental offices were moved to places above the water line to make way for the construction of the Three Gorges Project. During the resettlement work, the city government carried out a series of measures and regulations to protect the environment and cultural relics. Chongqing has so far used 22.94 million yuan in environmental protection and 93.36 million yuan to protect 200 cultural sites. A total of 56 people, involved in misappropriating and embezzling government funds allocated for resettlement, have been punished. By the end of this year, the city will have used 4.5 billion yuan to relocate 103,000 people who are living in the project area. The Three Gorges Project, launched in 1993, will begin generating hydroelectricity on June 1, 2003, and be completed in 2009 at a cost of 100 billion yuan. Of the total spending, more than 40 billion yuan will be used for the resettlement of 1.13 million residents living in the dam area, 80 percent of whom are from Chongqing. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |