Liu said it will be convenient for his grandson to go to school there.

This is not the first time Henan has uprooted part of its population for the water diversion project. In 2009 and 2010, the enormous undertaking caused about 76,000 people to move.

Cui Jun, deputy director of the relocation management office in Nanyang city, told China Daily that the relocation this time will affect more people, will occur in a shorter time period than the previous one and, as a result, will present greater difficulties.

"The relocation will divide the affected people into 111 groups and last about 112 days," Cui told China Daily. "We are making full preparations for this complicated migration."

Throughout 2011, the water diversion project is expected to cause about 190,000 residents in Hubei and Henan provinces to be resettled. They will join the 149,000 who have moved so far, E Jingping, the head of the South-to-North Water Diversion Office under the State Council said in February, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

In the diversion project, water will flow northward along three routes: an eastern route, a middle route and a western route.

The middle route will be completed in 2014 and will lead to the relocation of 345,000 people in Hubei and Henan provinces. Those affected live near the Danjiangkou Reservoir, which is the source of water for the middle route.