Officials confirmed that there will be an exodus of some 125,000 locals from the future reservoir area of the mammoth Three Gorges Project, which will be the world’s largest hydropower dam and is currently under construction across the Yangtze River, the world’s third longest river after the Nile and the Amazon.

The people who are to be resettled will total 1.1 million by 2009, when the project is due to be completed. They will all have to say farewell to their ancestral homes and seek their fortunes elsewhere to make way for the huge reservoir.

Most of the more than 1 million to be relocated will simply move further up the mountain sides as the water rises. A total of 125,000, however, will be selected to completely leave the reservoir area to go and make their living in economically developed provinces along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River or in the country’s prosperous coastal areas, said Guo Shuyan, deputy director of the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee under the State Council, which is the project’s decision-making organ.

Guo confirmed the exodus on Saturday at a workshop on the project attended by hundreds of experts from all over the world, who are gathering in Beijing to discuss some key issues relating to large dams.

Guo made it clear that the exodus “is to prevent the environment around the reservoir from deteriorating. Many experts have said that the area would not be able to support too many people.”

Experts have warned that if the infertile slopes above the Yangtze are over-logged and over-farmed the area’s fragile environment will suffer. Soil erosion and water runoff will intensify, which will increase the sediments deposited in the reservoir and shorten its expected operating life.

The Three Gorges project is designed to control flooding on the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, generate electricity for East China and improve the navigation of the river.

So far, over 40,000 of the 125,000 have already been moved from the reservoir area and resettled in better areas, including places near Shanghai, China’s largest commercial city,” said sources with Guo’s committee.

The project’s resettlement program is viewed as “the most difficult crux of the success of the project,” by both of the government and the panel of experts that has been involved for decades in feasibility studies on the dam.

Guo is confident that the largest resettlement project China has ever seen will be a success. “So far, so good,” he said.

The government will not simply compensate those who are to be relocated with a one-time-only payment, as has been done in the past. The majority of the resettlement funds are instead to be invested in the local area to develop the economy and help exploit local resources in a rational way.

This, Guo said, “will not only keep the lives of the resettled the same as before, but also lay a strong foundation for their futures and for further economic growth.”

Although each of the 1 million people to be relocated are due about 40,000 yuan (US$4,819) in compensation, most of their money will be used to develop infrastructure, including housing, roads and power supply, which will all be for the benefit of the resettled.

“By the end of this July, 240,000 locals out of the 1 million had been resettled and 90,000 others were getting ready to move,” Guo said, indicating that one-third of the total number of people to be relocated are now making new lives in new places.

“The resettlement project is going as scheduled,” Guo said, adding that 14.5 million square meters of housing, equivalent to over 40 percent of the housing that will be inundated by the rising waters of the reservoir, has been built to house those who have had to move. Moreover, many roads, harbors and communication facilities have been improved.

To date, about 577 factories, equivalent to 36 percent of those to be inundated, have been built to replace those lost with improved facilities and greater economic efficiency.

Moreover, two cities, 11 county towns and 114 townships are being built to replace those that will be covered by the waters of the reservoir. For example, a new Zigui County town has started taking shape in Central China’s Hubei Province.

(China Daily)