By IANS,
Beijing : About 300,000 more people living near the Three Gorges Dam in China will have to be relocated. This will be in addition to 1.13 million people who have already been shifted out for the world’s largest hydropower project, an official said.
The deputy director of the migration bureau of Wanzhou district of Chongqing told China Daily Wednesday that at least another 300,000 people would have to move out of the reservoir area.
“An eco-screen, or buffer belt, is waiting for approval to be built alongside the reservoir to improve the water quality of the Yangtze river streams and reduce the contamination from residents living nearby,” Hu Jiahai, who was also a deputy of the local people’s congress, was quoted as saying.
“Additionally, more people will have to move out of the area to avoid geographic hazards, like landslides, caused by the dam that tames water levels rising or falling between 145 m to 175 m every year to produce electricity.”
He said the actual number depends on the assessment of the geology of the dam area.
As part of the nation’s strategy to provide cheap energy and prevent flood and draught, the project began in 1992 and began hydro-electricity harnessing in 2008.
Chongqing acting mayor Huang Qifan said: “A total 54.18-billion yuan investment has been designated to facilitate the migration project that helped 1.138 million displaced Chongqing people settle down.”
According to a 2009 survey conducted by the Chongqing Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), population density in the reservoir area has reached 338 people per sq km, which is 2.1 times the national average.
The report also said “land for industrial use is lacking”.
Many people living in the submerged reservoir area reportedly have already relocated to neighbouring provinces or cities downstream of the river, the media report said.
Also, rampant geographic hazards threaten the reservoir area.
A survey in 2007 found 9,324 sites were potentially threatened by geographic hazards, including 3,812 new ones that have emerged since 2003 because of water reserving and rainfalls, according to the latest report from the Chongqing committee of CPPCC.
The report said that since 2001, some 53,025 people have been resettled to avoid the hazards.