Nearly 480,000 local residents living in the Three Gorges Reservoir
areas will be relocated in the coming six years.
During the period, a total of 556 businesses and factories will
also be shifted to make way for the world's biggest hydropower
project on the Yangtze River. The announcement was made by an
official from the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee under
the State Council, Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.
The successful relocation of residents during the construction of
the reservoir on the Yangtze River will make it possible to begin
generating electricity in June.
By
the end of last year, the relocation of people to make way for
building work on the second phase of China's Three Gorges Power
Project had been completed. A total of 645,200 people were moved to
new homes, according to the official, who was not identified in the
Xinhua report.
Three Gorges project has involved the world's biggest relocation. A
total of 1.13 million residents who mainly lived in Hubei
Province and Chongqing
Municipality were moved.
The mammoth task began in 1992 and by the end of last year, over 60
percent of those targeted for relocation in Hubei and Chongqing had
been moved from the reservoir area.
The successful completion of the relocation work is expected to
boost economic development and improve the environment in the
reservoir areas, said the official.
By
the end of last year, a total of 1,043 firms with poor economic
performance had been closed.
For years natural disasters in the region, such as landslides, have
threatened the lives of local people. Relocation will, experts
predict, have a favorable impact on the environment and lessen the
likelihood of such disasters, said the official.
Both central and local governments have agreed to allocate 4
billion yuan (US$484 million) to improve the environment and to
cope with any future natural disasters in the region.
In
another development, the Ministry of Water Resources announced that
the Chinese Government plans to invest a total of 39.2 billion yuan
(US$4.7 billion) over the next seven years, in a bid to clean up
the mighty Yangtze River.
Ministry officials said recently that their efforts will
concentrate on water pollution control in the Three Gorges
Reservoir areas, as well as in the upper reaches of the
Yangtze.
Currently the river water, although still able to meet the required
standard for drinking, has in recent years suffered considerably
from various pollutants.
Experts warned that soon after the Three Gorges Reservoir begins to
store water, the rapid increase of various pollutants will pose a
great challenge to the reservoir environment, as the self-cleaning
capacity will be much weakened because of the slower flow of the
water.
Based on careful research over the past 10 years, experts and
officials have developed a program of water pollution prevention
and control for the upper reaches of the Yangtze.
The program provides comprehensive solutions for pollution control
in the provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan on the upper
reaches of the river and for Chongqing Municipality and Hubei
Province, located in the reservoir areas.
By
2009, all cities and towns will have their own rubbish disposal
facilities, which will ensure that 100 percent of waste can be
centrally disposed of, said Zhang Yong, deputy director of
Chongqing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.
(China Daily February 8, 2003)