4 million more people to be moved from gorges area
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-12 07:30
CHONGQING: At least 4 million people from the
Three Gorges Reservoir area are to be relocated
to cities in the next 10 to 15 years, Chongqing
Municipality Vice-Mayor Yu Yuanmu said.
Chongqing’s 2007-20 rural and urban development
plan, which was approved by the State Council on
September 20, describes the resettlements as
necessary to protect the ecology of the reservoir area, said Yu.
The country’s most populous municipality is set for vigorous urban
expansion.
More than 4 million people currently living in
northeast and southwest Chongqing, where the
Three Gorges Reservoir extends for 600 km, will
be encouraged to resettle in the urban outskirts,
about an hour’s bus ride from downtown Chongqing,
according to a report on sina.com.
No details about the massive relocation are
available, but Yu said the ecological safety of
the Three Gorges Reservoir area is threatened by the growing population.
"On one hand, the reservoir area has a vulnerable
environment, and the natural conditions make
large scale urbanization or serious
overpopulation impossible here," said the official.
On the other hand, Yu said, the area is already
suffering from overpopulation and poor conditions for industrial
development.
In March 1997, the city, which sits on the upper
reaches of the Yangtze River, received approval
to become a centrally administered municipality,
the fourth after Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.
It was expected to spearhead economic development
in the central and western regions.
Covering 82,000 sq km, the municipality has a
population of more than 27.98 million, 55 percent of whom live in rural
areas.
The city’s gross domestic product reached 348.6
billion yuan ($45.8 billion) last year. However,
its growth has been seriously unbalanced. The per
capita GDP of Wuxi county was 3,593 yuan last
year, only a tenth of that in the developed Yuzhong District.
On June 7, Chongqing and Chengdu, capital of
neighboring Sichuan Province, were selected by
the National Development and Reform Commission,
the country’s top economic planner, as pilot
cities to work towards coordinated and balanced
development between urban and rural areas.
Planners estimate that Chongqing will have a
population of 30 million, 16.15 million of them
in urban areas, representing an urbanization rate
of 53.8 percent by 2010. The urban population
will be 21.6 million of the city’s total
population of 31 million by 2020, representing an
urbanization rate of 70 percent.
Last month, officials and experts admitted the
Three Gorges Dam project had caused an array of
ecological problems, including more frequent
landslides and pollution, and if preventive
measures are not taken, it could lead to an environmental “catastrophe”.
Tan Qiwei, vice-mayor of Chongqing, told a forum
in Wuhan that the shore of the reservoir had
collapsed in 91 places and a total of 36 km had caved in.
Frequent geological disasters have threatened the
lives of residents around the reservoir area,
said Huang Xuebin, head of the headquarters for
prevention and control of geological disasters in the Three Gorges
Reservoir.
Construction of the project has already
necessitated the resettlement of at least 1.2 million people.
The dam, the world’s largest water-control
facility, was launched in 1993, with a budget of 180 billion yuan.
Located on the middle reaches of the Yangtze
River, the project comprises a 185-m-high dam,
completed early last year, a five-tier ship lock and the reservoir.
Giant China Dam Forcing More Relocations
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN , AP, October 12, 2007
BEIJING (AP) Chinese authorities plan to move
even more rural residents from behind the Three
Gorges Dam in recognition of environmental and
economic problems spawned by the giant project,
state media and the local government reported Friday.
The number of people to be moved was unclear and
officials in the Chongqing region said some
reports on the project were incorrect.
The official Xinhua News Agency, citing earlier
reports, put the figure to be moved as high as 4
million, adding to the 1.4 million already forced
to relocate as a result of the project.
However, other reports put the figure much lower,
with the newspaper 21st Century Business Herald
saying 2.3 million would be moved to urban areas by 2020.
An outline of the plan posted on the Chongqing
government Web site said the region’s urban
population was expected to grow by about 4
million between 2010 and 2020. The plan said
“environmental relocation” would be carried out
in areas surrounding the reservoir where the
environment was particularly vulnerable, but gave no figures.
Wang Qing, an official with the Chongqing
Development and Reform Commission, said people
would be “encouraged and guided to move,” but didn’t say how many.
Hu Jihong, the commission’s office director, also
said there were incorrect reports, adding: "We
think it’s not worth commenting."
Relocating residents for the controversial dam
has been a sensitive issue, with some of those
moved complaining of corruption and saying their
new homes offered little opportunity to make a living.
The 21st Century Business Herald said families
targeted under the new plan included some who had
already been moved once to make way for the dam.
Those communities, however, were often scattered,
with poor farmland and few public services.
"These communities would never be able to
establish a solid economic base," the paper said.
Chongqing’s plan calls for the establishment of a
green belt surrounding the reservoir to curb
pollution and prevent further erosion of the Yangtze’s banks.
The announcement follows an unusually frank
government assessment last month that China could
face a catastrophe if it fails to quickly stop
environmental problems caused by the dam.
The dam is China’s showcase engineering triumph
and the world’s biggest hydropower project.
However, authorities are also showing a growing
recognition of serious environmental problems related to the project.
The dam has been relentlessly promoted as a
cure-all for devastating flooding on the Yangtze
River, and a source of clean power for a nation
attempting to wean itself off its heavy reliance on coal.
Begun in 1993, the Three Gorges dam project, with
an overall cost of $23.6 billion, has forged
ahead with the backing of the Communist
leadership despite complaints about its expense,
environmental concerns and the forced relocations.
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