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The relocation of local residents in southwest China's Chongqing
municipality is well underway, and the storage of water to
135-meter level of the Three Gorges dam project in June would not
be delayed, said Huang Zhendong, secretary of the Municipal
Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Saturday.
Huang, also a deputy to the First Session of the 10th National
People's Congress, said that approximately 560,000 residents in
Chongqing had been moved into new homes by the end of 2002. So far,
the work of cleaning up the reservoir bed has been completed to
ensure the storage of reservoir water would begin on June 1. In
October 2003, the Three Gorges hydropower station will start
generating electricity.
The prime factor to the success of the Three Gorges project, the
largest of its kind worldwide, now in full swing, is displacement
of local population. A total of 1.03 million residents in Chongqing
municipality would be displaced to make way for the gigantic
project, or 85.5 percent of the total in the whole reservoir
area.
The next step of the relocation work, Huang said, would be focused
on helping the relocated residents settle down their life, resume
production and how to build a relatively better off life.
The Three Gorges project has brought lots of opportunities for
development to the counties and cities around the reservoir area.
Local residents of such counties as Fengjie, Yunyang and Wushan
have moved to new sites, with their living conditions keep
improving, noted Huang, adding that about 130,000 residents have
been resettled in different regions across the country, with the
support of the whole nation.
The relocation effort, which began in 1992, has covered 11
districts and counties in Chongqing, as well as in central Hubei
Province. It is estimated that by the end of 2009, the time set for
completion of the project, more than 1.13 million people will have
to be relocated.
To
date, 11 provinces and municipalities in east China and along the
Yangtze, the country's longest river, have been designated to
accept displaced residents for the upcoming third and fourth phases
of the relocation work.
(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2003)
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