Relocation for new Water Diversion Project

Their hometown of Niuhelin District, Danjiankou City, will be submerged by 2014 under 170 metres of water.

17/08/2010 Ámbito: Asia (Noticia leida 253 veces)

Bidding farewell to their hometown for good, 499 villagers in central China's Hubei Province left their homes Wednesday morning, becoming the first group to relocate to make way for China's South-North Water Diversion Project (SNWD). Their hometown of Niuhelin District, Danjiankou City, will be submerged by 2014 under 170 metres of water.

The relocation for the building of the central route of the SNWD by 2014 will involve 330,000 residents - 180,000 in Hubei and 150,000 in neighbouring Henan Province. The project is designed to take water from a section of China's largest river, the Yangtze, to satisfy demand in the north China's drought-prone megacities - Beijing and Tianjin.

The government paid a last hometown dinner and organised a troupe of gong and drum players to cheer up the villagers. Their journey was the starting point for the nation's largest relocation program after that of the Three Gorges Hydro-Power Project, which involved the relocation of 1.27 million.

According to the government, from Wednesday until 30th September, about 60,000 people will be relocated. At the farewell scene, a fleet of 15 coaches carried the villagers while 34 trucks loaded with the villagers' belongings was followed by a number of ambulances with the village's elderly, unwell and pregnant.

The speed of relocation, 60,000 people within 50 days, may set a new standard.