China Youth Daily released an astonishing statistic Thursday: Of the 16 million people who have been resettled for construction of major hydropower projects in the last five decades, 10 million live in poverty.

We have read several reports about the difficulties resettled people encounter in finding new jobs, purchasing new housing and making new friends.

But few of us realize so many are not even able to make ends meet.

According to the experts quoted in the China Youth Daily report, in the southwest part of the country, where most hydropower plants are located, the land inundated by reservoirs is often most suitable for farming and living. The resettled farmers are usually moved to places of higher altitude where living is harder.

Compensation is usually far from enough to make up for their losses in the resettlement process. Nor can they get proper assistance to tap new sources of income except for farming.

It is sadly ironic that farmers who lose their richest farmland to the reservoirs sometimes cannot afford the electricity generated on their former land.

When the authorities decide to construct such new projects they more often than not emphasize the potential benefits for improving the local economy and the lives of residents.

But reality is obviously against those promises.

If the projects do not reward the people who sacrifice so much there should be some one to do so.

Such reward should not only be a small fund of compensation or a new house, but also include training to build up their capability for living or other ways to help them adapt to new lives.

The basic principle of the whole process is that the lives of resettled people should at least remain at the level they were at before the move. Even if such a standard cannot be realized instantly after the resettlement, they should have the chance to achieve it in the near future.

As to the figures in the report, some may doubt their authenticity, questioning its source or techniques in gathering numbers.

But even if only 1 or 2 per cent of resettled people are dragged into poverty and not properly taken care of, that represents hundreds of thousands of rural residents.

(China Daily July 30, 2004)