A signboard promising safe water near a water canal link to the South-to-North Water Transfer Project at Zhengzhou, Henan province.-- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS# 330,000 people relocated
# Costs 3 times more than Three Gorges Dam
China has started to relocate 330,000 people as it pressed ahead on yet another awe-inspiring massive engineering adventure as ambitious as the construction of the Great Wall.
The South-to-North Water Transfer Project, or Nanshui Beidiao, will move billions of tonnes of water from the south of the country to the north, a diversion of hundreds of kilometres through pipes and canals.
Even as experts continue to debate the wisdom of the gargantuan hydro scheme, the authorities are pressing forward to overcome the limitations posed by northern China's arid landscape.
The project requires the uprooting of entire villages in central Henan and Hubei provinces to make way for a canal that would carry water from the Yangtze River to thirsty regions in the north, including capital Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province, reported the official Xinhua news agency.
The mass migration is the largest after the Three Gorges Dam - the world's largest hydroelectric project - forced more than 1.4 million people to leave their hometowns.
Hundreds of thousands are expected to be displaced for the eastern and central routes in the water diversion project. More will be affected once details of the western route are released.
No comments:
Post a Comment