The majority of resettlers who moved out of the Three Gorges dam area now lead a better life than before, according to a sample survey announced recently.
The survey conducted over several years on 100 rural households resettled in
Chongqing shows the annual per capita net income of these households averages 1,890 yuan, 300 yuan more than the annual income of local farmers.
Each household has on average 40 square meters of living space,nine meters more than local residents. There are three times as many refrigerators, TV sets and washing machines in resettlers' homes than in local resident' homes and twice as many motorcycles and telephones.
This is because resettlers were provided with fertile farmland with better irrigation facilities and were paid extra government allowances. In addition, they were encouraged to have sideline activities, such as their own shops opened with government assistance and jobs in rural factories, says a senior official in charge of the Three Gorges relocation Project.
Zheng Yingzhi, a 39-year-old country woman from the dam area, lives in a carefully chosen new two-storied building at Tingcun Village in Chongqing. Her family has a small orange orchard and also runs a grocery shop. They make about 3,000 yuan annually, more than double the income of when they lived in the dam area.
She says, "The local government helped us adapt to our new environment and sent agro-technicians to advise us about orange production. I believe the life will be even better in the future."
Since the relocation scheme was launched in 1993, more than 500,000 people in Hubei Province and
Chongqing Municipality have moved out of the dam areas to pave the way for construction.
When the Three Gorges Project, the largest hydro-electric power project in the world, is completed in 2009, the number of resettlers will exceed 1.13 million.
Under the relocation plan, 90 percent of these were resettled in
Chongqing and the remaining 10 percent, or 100,000 people,were moved to other parts of China. Statistics show the life of those who were shifted to rural Shanghai, Guangdong and other coastal areas is even better than those who settled down in
Chongqing because of a better living environment.
Zhang Baoxin, vice director of the Resettlement Affairs Bureau of Three Gorges Project Construction Committee, said, the current survey shows 90 percent of those moved have improved lives.
