With 10,400 new residents in the
county, Yichang takes the lead in resettlement due to the
construction of the massive Three Gorges Dam Project.
Of these people, 10,100 have built new houses,
and 6,380 of them have gained lifetime security by joining
an old-age pension system, getting a job or developing
farmland.
Statistics show the incomes of the
majority of those resettled people have risen, and the
county's economy is developing at an unprecedented speed. In
1995, agricultural and industrial total output in the county
soared 40.5 percent over the previous year.
"The earlier people move away from their
original dwelling sites, the sooner they become better
off," townspeople said.
The average
salary of people in the first resettlement village has
reached 4,898 yuan (about 590 US dollars), compared to the
500 yuan (about 60 US dollars) they were earning three years
before they moved.
The village has become the
richest in the county. Officials said the resettlement has
allowed their people to get rich ten years ahead of
schedule.
Tongshuwan, a village in Hubei
Province, is the first village that will be submerged once
the reservoir is filled with water. Here, 1098 of 1146
people will have to be resettled.
As an
experimental base for resettlement, 904 people in the
village have moved into new dwellings, and those resettled
have planted 60 hectares of citrus orchards.
To the villagers' surprise, their living
conditions have improved: their average income was 5.35
times that of 1990's figure.
Villagers said
the reason for their improved living conditions can be
attributed to government subsidies and a series of
preferential policies.
Large scale
resettlement has provided a historic opportunity to develop
the economy in the project's reservoir area.
After the project is completed in 2009, the
reservoir will submerge 632 square kilometers in 21 counties
and cities in Hubei and Sichuan provinces. More than one
million people will have to be resettled.
In
order to provide a better life for the resettlers, the
Chinese government has adopted measures to develop the
economy in the reservoir area.
Other measures
to raise resettler's incomes include building grain, fruit
and forestry bases on the barren hills and available
grasslands, engaging in aquatic production in hundreds of
rivers after the reservoir fills up, and strengthening
infrastructure construction. Officials also plan to develop
township enterprises and the service industry with the help
of the government's resettlement fund and with support from
other areas.
State investment in the Three
Gorges Project, the world's largest of its kind, was 90
billion yuan. Of this amount, 40 billion yuan (about 482
million US dollars) was used for resettlement.
By May 1996, 20,000 people have been
resettled and all of them enjoy a better life, thanks to the
assistance of the governments at various levels.
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