For a half century, retired miner Wang Wenzhang lived in little
more than a shack in a shanty town called Modigou, in northeast
China's Fushun, Liaoning Province. His one, long-cherished dream
was to live in a place where the roof didn't leak.
"We had six people crammed into a shed of less than 25 square
meters. In summer we had to ladle out water after storms and in
winter the cold wind would blow in a thick layer of dust. We got
water from a well and had to queue up to use the public toilet in
the morning." said Wang, 79, recalling his life in Modigou.
Wang's shed was a typical makeshift dwelling near northeast
China's coal mining industries. Sometimes the shacks were home to
three or four generations of poor miners.
In recent years, the central government has focused its
attention on housing problems of the poor. Adequate housing for
people with low income is the "Number One" proposal submitted to
this year's full session of the National Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) which began on
March 3.
Fortunately for Wang, his dream of leaving the Modigou slum came
true just before last year's Chinese Lunar New Year. In fact, the
whole shanty town was replaced by 13 new apartment buildings,
providing decent dwellings for about 900 households.
On February 16, two days before this year's Chinese New Year's
Spring Festival, Premier Wen Jiabao visited the low-income families
in Fushun City and was shown around the new Modigou housing
estate.
It was Wen's second trip to Fushun. After his first visit in
2003, Wen, who was clearly moved by the people's plight, issued a
strong directive to the provincial government. He ordered immediate
measures to improve the lives of local miners. His order triggered
a mass reconstruction of the province's shanty towns.
Although Wang's new flat is just 10 square meters larger than
the old shed, his family's life has been dramatically improved. "We
only paid 6,570 yuan (about US$900) to move in here and we will
never have to queue up for toilets again," Wang joked.
In China's old industrial base of Liaoning Province, governments
have built 6,300 new residential buildings since 2005. More than
1.2 million people like Wang have been relocated from slums
covering 50,000 square meters.
This year the central government says it will do more to improve
conditions in shanty towns, as Premier Wen promised on March 5 in
his annual work report.
The Premier vowed to help fix the housing problems of all
low-income families. "We will improve fiscal and tax policies to
increase support and establish a sound system of low-rent housing.
We will improve and standardize the system of affordable housing."
Wen pledged.
At the end of 2006, 512 of China's 657 cities had initiated
affordable housing strategies. The Ministry of Construction is
requiring all Chinese cities to fully implement a plan to provide
affordable housing by the end of this year.
However, Zheng Gongcheng, professor with prestigious Renmin
University and a deputy to this year's National People's Congress
(NPC), says China still has a long way to go before its housing
problems for low income people are addressed.
"China's affordable housing is only available to a small
percentage of households that classified as low-income. A huge
number of families don't fall into this category, yet they can't
afford to buy a flat and they don't get backup from government
policies," Zhang said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 6, 2007)