Beijing – A massive water diversion project will displace 330,000 people in China’s central Hubei Province, local media reported Sunday. About 230,000 local residents in the Danjiangkou Reservoir area would be relocated to more than 50 nearby counties and cities, head of the project office Zhang Jiyao was quoted as saying in a report by the official Xinhua news agency.
Pilot relocation work began in November last year, the report said.
The South-to-North Water Diversion Project, which was first proposed by Mao Zedong in 1952 and finally approved in 2001, will transfer water from China’s flood-prone south to the drought-stricken north.
Since construction began, the project has run behind schedule. Citing an unidentified official from the project’s construction committee, the local Economic Observer said the delays have resulted from engineering complications, the need to relocate residents, and a need for additional investment.
The government has said the scheme will cost 500 billion yuan (62 billion dollars), but the Economic Observer reported that tens of billions of additional yuan could be required.
Local and international opponents of the project have said that it could have a negative impact on rivers which will supply water including the Yangtze, and that the amount of water to be transferred is not worth the huge economic investment.
