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NINE years ago Miss Zhao was a freshman in a Bei-jing university.When washing her hands she keptthe water running while soaping her hands,just likeshe always did."Are you from the South?" askedthe student standing next to her.Zhao was bemused: "Howon earth did you know that?" "Because you don't know howshort of water Beijing is," replied the student,leaning over toturn offthe faucet for her.
This is a true story,one that we heard when reporting inHenan,one of China's central provinces.The year after this inci-dent took place,China started to construct the South-to-NorthWater Diversion Project,a major project channeling the pre-cious commodity from the Yangtze River to the north of China.By 2014 Beijing is expected to be using water from the south.
The geographical distribution of China's water resourcespresents an obviously unbalanced picture: some 80 percent ofthe total is in the south,whereas northern China has a waterdeficit,particularly big cities like Beijing and Tianjin.Accord-ing to Shen Fengsheng,chief engineer of the South-to-NorthWater Diversion Commission of the State Council,China'sper capita water resource is only a quarter of the world aver-age level; in the Yellow,Huaihe and Haihe river valleys,theper capita water resource is only 462 cubic meters,one-fifthof the national average and one-20th of the world average;and in the North China Plain where Beijing and Tianjin arelocated the figure drops to 292 cubic meters,representingone-seventh and one-30th of the national and world averagesrespectively.
In order to alleviate water shortages in the north of Chinaand to underwrite daily life and local social and economicdevelopment,China has been preparing to transfer water fromthe south to the north since the 1950s.
In his briefing Shen Fengsheng explained that the South-to-North Water Diversion Project has three routes,Eastern,Central and Western,
The Eastern Route crosses the eastern stretches of the Yel-low,Huaihe and Haihe river valleys,which is to say the east-ern part of Jiangsu,Shandong and Hebei provinces and part ofTianjin City.
The Central Route runs through the area lying betweenthe Eastern Route and the north-south line of the TaihangMountains,including Henan,Hebei,Beijing and Tianjin.TheWestern Route has a wider scope and,unlike the Eastern andCentral routes that channel water directly into the urban watersupply network,uses the Yellow River as an intermediary.Diversions into the Yellow River will alleviate water shortagesin the upper and middle reaches of that river,to the benefit ofQinghai,Gansu,Ningxia,Inner Mongolia,Shaanxi and Shanxi.Longer term,a turnkey water conservancy project is slated tosupply water to the Hexi Corridor in Gansu.According to Shen,once the three routes are operational throughout their length,connecting with the Yangtze,Yellow,Huaihe and Haihe rivers,a vertical and lateral grid will be formed,linking different river systems in China.
Henan,where we conducted our interviews,is the point ofdeparture for the Central Route.
Danjiangkou Reservoir Resettlement
FROM Henan's capital Zhengzhou,it takes five hours byroad to Xichuan,a county in the southwest extremityof the province,next door to Hubei Province.Danjiang-kou Reservoir,the source of water for the Central Route,is located on the border between the two provinces.The reservoir,745 square kilometers in area,was constructed during the 196osand 1970s as a major water conservancy project.
Because of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project,about 162,ooo people will be moved away from Xiehuan.ByAugust 2010,76,ooo people had already been relocated; thesecond phase,involving 86,ooo people,started last May,to becompleted within four months.
How Relocation Led toPoverty
In fact this is not the firstlarge-scale relocation Xichuanresidents have experienced.Between 1959 and 1978 theDanjiangkou Reservoir sub-merged 362 square kilome-ters of the county,includingthe 5oo-year-old county seat.Some 202,000 people had tomove.
Xichuan has a lot going forit: mild weather,abundantrainfall and fertile soil makeit very suitable for living andagriculture.Despite these living and farmingadvantages,Xichuan is among China's mostpoverty-stricken counties because of sLx popula-tion resettlements over the 20 years of reservoirconstruction.A third of Xichuan's populationare migrants,and some "migrant families" havebeen forced to resettle up to four times.
Since a dam was built at Danjiangkou in1959,the water level has gradually risen,result-ing in large-scale migration to other provinces.However,many people returned later,unableto adapt to the weather and living conditionsin the new place.They built shanties along thereservoir,opeued up wasteland for crops andfished to earn a livelihood.As more and morepeople settled there,the local governmentnamed it Yanjiang (Riverside) Village.Now thevillage is home to over 13o families,all of themreturned migrants.The rising water level hasforced several rounds of relocation of water-front families to higher ground.The shrinkingof cultivable land and the weakening of the bearing capacity ofthe environment have resulted in dire poverty for the villagers.Lookin9 Forward to Resettlement
In 2002 the plan for the South-to-North Water DiversionProject got the formal go-ahead; under it Danjiangkou Reser-voir would become the water resource for the Central Route.The implications for Xichuan were that 11 towns,1,276 villages,three market centers and 35 industrial or mining enterpriseswere destined to be submerged by water.The central govern-ment also imposed a construction moratorium meaning thatno new housing,roads or factories could be built in the area.Inthe context of China's double-digit economic growth,the pov-erty here presents a stark contrast.
Zhangzhuang Village of Taohe Township was formed by returned migrants in 1971 and 1973.Zhang Xiaojun,the villagehead,told us that the 1,940 villagers had to depend on foodsubsidies because of the insufficiency of arable land.In 1993,762 people moved to Houpo Town to relieve the land shortage.
Now most people here still live in the adobe houses butt 40years ago.Zhang Xiaojun is no exception: the inside walls ofhis four-room home are plastered with posters from the 1970s,and the outside walls are of exposed mud bricks.In front of hishouse there is a relief tent supplied by a civil administrationdepartment.Just by the door a few chickens are scratchingabout.A hen cackles non-stop,perhaps announcing she's aboutto lay an egg.
Zhang told us very few new houses had been built becauseof people's low incomes and fear of relocation without warning.Since the moratorium,married couples with new babies had nochoice but to rig up something makeshift.Becanse of their agesmany houses had become dangerous structures,but remainedunfixed because of the imminent possibility of having to move.At any strange noise people would rush outdoors for safety.Inthe last rainy season one house collapsed."Many of us havetaken to living in these temporary tents.We're looking forwardto being resettled just as soon as possible," he said.
At the mention of new houses,Zhang's excitement is veryobvious.They will be built in a new village,4o0 kilometersaway in Wangluo Town,Xiangcheng County of Xuchang City.The name of the village will stay the same though.The originallocation chosen was in a border area of three counties and notwell situated for transportation.Zhang and the other villagerrepresentatives were not satiuisfied,so,after negotiation,thecurrent location,one with much better transport access,wassettled on.Zhang informed us that in accordance with policy,every resettled villager will get 24 square meters of housingspace and 700 square meters of farmland.With the new villagebeing close to the city,it will be easy for farmers to find workthere.Representatives of the villagers regularly check the prog-ress and quality of the new houses,and their traveling and out-of-pocket expenses are covered by the government.
Zhang Xiaojun's four-person household chose a two-storybuilding of 2o2 square meters."It's not far off being a villa likeyou townies have," he smiled.On top of relocation compensa-tion,he has to add several tens of thousand yuan of his ownmoney to buy the "villa."
As we left Zhangzhuang,we noticed a family throwing a party."It's an engagement party," said Zhang."A girl from WangiuoTown took a fancy to our new viIlage and to a young man in ourvillage.0nee the move is made to the new house,they'll gethitched."
Uprooting Is Tough
It's hard to express in words the emotional engagement be-tween Chinese people and their land.They farm it,inhabit it,and their lives are rooted in it.Learning from previous lessons, the local government decided to resettle all the 162,000 peoplewithin their home province of Henan.Even so,it will involvefarming families leaving their roots with no prospect of return;more importantly,it means letting go of the tightly woven webof ties - the blood ties and social relations - that bind them tothis place.
On constructions across the planned reservoir area,onekeeps seeing a whitewashed horizontal line marked "172 me-ters." This is the planned impoundment level and anyone livingbelow that line has to leave.
The line runs across Yaowan Village,Jinhe Town,where 65-year-old Wang Tingyan has a house just below the line,whilehis two daughters live above it.His second daughter lives only200 meters from her dad,and often sends him down sometasty roodshe has cooked up.Once he moves away,it won't beeasy for his daughters to look after him.
Brothers Ling Yingjun and Ling Yingxiang were among thefirst batch of migrants out of Linggang Village last year.Beforemoving,they swept the graves of their great-grandparents,grandparents,parents,uncles and aunts.Soon these graveswould be under water,and this was the final chance to pay re-spects to their forebears.
Ms.Zhang Caiman,in charge of relocation there,recalledthe eve of resettlement,when all the houses had been demol-ished.She saw an old granny,eyes full of tears as she sat infront of what had been her home for all her long life,now re-duced to a pile of rubble and dust."What could I say? I knewanything I could say would seem empty."
Driving through Xiehuan,fields of green wheat spread outbefore us.The wheat was already about a foot high,like a thick,soft blanket.From time to time,local official Xia Jifeng pointedto a stretch of land and said this would be under water nextyear.Though there was only a month to go before moving outthe second batch of migrants,many people were still workingthe fields.They were probably inured to a life on the brink ofrelocation.No matter when the relocation happened,the landstill needed planting for whatever harvest might be reaped.Little Buddies
In Xichuan's Memorial Hall of the South-to-North WaterDiversion Project,there is a group of sculptures portrayingscenes of people leaving their homeland and relatives.One isof two pupils encouraging each other and promising to meetagain when they are older.This dream came true for two pals.
The morning we set off to Xichuan we learned that ZhouBin,in charge of relocation in Henan Province,would arrangeto reunite best buddies Xiong Lingxia and Li Pei.
Eight-year-old Xiong used to live in Yuying village of TaoheTownship,and Li,a year older,used to live in Shangzhai Vil-lage.Just a stretch of road separated the two villages.Fromkindergarten to second grade they were in the same class andwent to school together everyday.Xiong said they were deskmates and very best friends.
In August 2010,Xiong moved to Wanjin Town,Zhaoling District of Luohe City,while Li moved to Shuangmiao Town-ship,Xiangeheng County of Xuchang City.The two places are110 km distant and the previously inseparable pair had notseen each other since.
"I miss her so much," Xiong told a journalist last March,"Ieven dreamed we were playing together." The project office incharge of Danjiangkou Reservoir relocation decided to bringthe two pals together again.
On April 9 Xiong came to Li's new house.They hugged eachother tight."I didn't see you when we moved.I miss you somuch.Today is a total surprise," sobbed little Li.Xiong tookout the gift she'd brought along,a red hair band,and arrangedit on Li's head.They encouraged each other to study hard andpromised to be best friends forever and ever.
Better Village,Better Life
Liuji Town of Zhongmou County,20 km east of Zhengzhou,is a pilot resettlement site.Its Yaowan New Village has 1,o94people in 250 households,and every new house has a yard.There is a primary school and access to water channels andhighways.Every one has been allocated 7o0 square meters offarmland,and the village has 240,000 square meters of fishbreeding ponds.
Yao Genhuai is busy building a support for cucumber vinesin his plastic greenhouse.The vines are about a man's heightand bear thumb-size fruits.The 47o-square-meter tent was putup last year,using RMB 2o,ooo of Yao's savings and a govern-ment subsidy of RMB 70,000.In addition to that,he has con-traeted 14,ooo square meters offish pools.He can easily maketens of thousands ofyuan a year.
Speaking of life changes,Yao told us every household hastap water,gas,a flush toilet - life is much easier now.Prox-imity to Zhengzhou means they have more job opportunities.Even unskilled workers can make ILMB 70 a day in the city.Hisonly grouch is the weather."My hometown has mountains andrivers,the air is better,the wind not so strong.It's warmer thanhere in winter."
Yao's neighbor,57-year-old Li Xiaonii,has two sons.Herhouse and her sons' houses are next to each other.Her sonsand their wives are working down south in Shenzhen,leavingtheir parents and a two-year-old son at home.Li and her hus-band have planted 2,600 square meters of farmland,which canprovide their own food and about 4,ooo yuan of income everyyear.Without others to help,she couldn't erect a greenhouse,and has sublet her fish pond allocation for an annual rent of1,700 yuan.On top of that,the government has allocated 600yuan per migrant per year for 20 years.So,with the monthlyremittances from her two sons as well,Li is very content withher economic situation.
According to Guo Guiming,director of the General Officeof Henan Provincial Migrant Of'flee,the resettlement projectfully embodies the lessons drawn from previous experiences.With a people-oriented philosophy,the government carriedout a detailed resettlement plan including compensation poli-cies and planning standards,to ensure that those resettledcould sueeessfully adapt and live a better life in their newabodes.
This is a true story,one that we heard when reporting inHenan,one of China's central provinces.The year after this inci-dent took place,China started to construct the South-to-NorthWater Diversion Project,a major project channeling the pre-cious commodity from the Yangtze River to the north of China.By 2014 Beijing is expected to be using water from the south.
The geographical distribution of China's water resourcespresents an obviously unbalanced picture: some 80 percent ofthe total is in the south,whereas northern China has a waterdeficit,particularly big cities like Beijing and Tianjin.Accord-ing to Shen Fengsheng,chief engineer of the South-to-NorthWater Diversion Commission of the State Council,China'sper capita water resource is only a quarter of the world aver-age level; in the Yellow,Huaihe and Haihe river valleys,theper capita water resource is only 462 cubic meters,one-fifthof the national average and one-20th of the world average;and in the North China Plain where Beijing and Tianjin arelocated the figure drops to 292 cubic meters,representingone-seventh and one-30th of the national and world averagesrespectively.
In order to alleviate water shortages in the north of Chinaand to underwrite daily life and local social and economicdevelopment,China has been preparing to transfer water fromthe south to the north since the 1950s.
In his briefing Shen Fengsheng explained that the South-to-North Water Diversion Project has three routes,Eastern,Central and Western,
The Eastern Route crosses the eastern stretches of the Yel-low,Huaihe and Haihe river valleys,which is to say the east-ern part of Jiangsu,Shandong and Hebei provinces and part ofTianjin City.
The Central Route runs through the area lying betweenthe Eastern Route and the north-south line of the TaihangMountains,including Henan,Hebei,Beijing and Tianjin.TheWestern Route has a wider scope and,unlike the Eastern andCentral routes that channel water directly into the urban watersupply network,uses the Yellow River as an intermediary.Diversions into the Yellow River will alleviate water shortagesin the upper and middle reaches of that river,to the benefit ofQinghai,Gansu,Ningxia,Inner Mongolia,Shaanxi and Shanxi.Longer term,a turnkey water conservancy project is slated tosupply water to the Hexi Corridor in Gansu.According to Shen,once the three routes are operational throughout their length,connecting with the Yangtze,Yellow,Huaihe and Haihe rivers,a vertical and lateral grid will be formed,linking different river systems in China.
Henan,where we conducted our interviews,is the point ofdeparture for the Central Route.
Danjiangkou Reservoir Resettlement
FROM Henan's capital Zhengzhou,it takes five hours byroad to Xichuan,a county in the southwest extremityof the province,next door to Hubei Province.Danjiang-kou Reservoir,the source of water for the Central Route,is located on the border between the two provinces.The reservoir,745 square kilometers in area,was constructed during the 196osand 1970s as a major water conservancy project.
Because of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project,about 162,ooo people will be moved away from Xiehuan.ByAugust 2010,76,ooo people had already been relocated; thesecond phase,involving 86,ooo people,started last May,to becompleted within four months.
How Relocation Led toPoverty
In fact this is not the firstlarge-scale relocation Xichuanresidents have experienced.Between 1959 and 1978 theDanjiangkou Reservoir sub-merged 362 square kilome-ters of the county,includingthe 5oo-year-old county seat.Some 202,000 people had tomove.
Xichuan has a lot going forit: mild weather,abundantrainfall and fertile soil makeit very suitable for living andagriculture.Despite these living and farmingadvantages,Xichuan is among China's mostpoverty-stricken counties because of sLx popula-tion resettlements over the 20 years of reservoirconstruction.A third of Xichuan's populationare migrants,and some "migrant families" havebeen forced to resettle up to four times.
Since a dam was built at Danjiangkou in1959,the water level has gradually risen,result-ing in large-scale migration to other provinces.However,many people returned later,unableto adapt to the weather and living conditionsin the new place.They built shanties along thereservoir,opeued up wasteland for crops andfished to earn a livelihood.As more and morepeople settled there,the local governmentnamed it Yanjiang (Riverside) Village.Now thevillage is home to over 13o families,all of themreturned migrants.The rising water level hasforced several rounds of relocation of water-front families to higher ground.The shrinkingof cultivable land and the weakening of the bearing capacity ofthe environment have resulted in dire poverty for the villagers.Lookin9 Forward to Resettlement
In 2002 the plan for the South-to-North Water DiversionProject got the formal go-ahead; under it Danjiangkou Reser-voir would become the water resource for the Central Route.The implications for Xichuan were that 11 towns,1,276 villages,three market centers and 35 industrial or mining enterpriseswere destined to be submerged by water.The central govern-ment also imposed a construction moratorium meaning thatno new housing,roads or factories could be built in the area.Inthe context of China's double-digit economic growth,the pov-erty here presents a stark contrast.
Zhangzhuang Village of Taohe Township was formed by returned migrants in 1971 and 1973.Zhang Xiaojun,the villagehead,told us that the 1,940 villagers had to depend on foodsubsidies because of the insufficiency of arable land.In 1993,762 people moved to Houpo Town to relieve the land shortage.
Now most people here still live in the adobe houses butt 40years ago.Zhang Xiaojun is no exception: the inside walls ofhis four-room home are plastered with posters from the 1970s,and the outside walls are of exposed mud bricks.In front of hishouse there is a relief tent supplied by a civil administrationdepartment.Just by the door a few chickens are scratchingabout.A hen cackles non-stop,perhaps announcing she's aboutto lay an egg.
Zhang told us very few new houses had been built becauseof people's low incomes and fear of relocation without warning.Since the moratorium,married couples with new babies had nochoice but to rig up something makeshift.Becanse of their agesmany houses had become dangerous structures,but remainedunfixed because of the imminent possibility of having to move.At any strange noise people would rush outdoors for safety.Inthe last rainy season one house collapsed."Many of us havetaken to living in these temporary tents.We're looking forwardto being resettled just as soon as possible," he said.
At the mention of new houses,Zhang's excitement is veryobvious.They will be built in a new village,4o0 kilometersaway in Wangluo Town,Xiangcheng County of Xuchang City.The name of the village will stay the same though.The originallocation chosen was in a border area of three counties and notwell situated for transportation.Zhang and the other villagerrepresentatives were not satiuisfied,so,after negotiation,thecurrent location,one with much better transport access,wassettled on.Zhang informed us that in accordance with policy,every resettled villager will get 24 square meters of housingspace and 700 square meters of farmland.With the new villagebeing close to the city,it will be easy for farmers to find workthere.Representatives of the villagers regularly check the prog-ress and quality of the new houses,and their traveling and out-of-pocket expenses are covered by the government.
Zhang Xiaojun's four-person household chose a two-storybuilding of 2o2 square meters."It's not far off being a villa likeyou townies have," he smiled.On top of relocation compensa-tion,he has to add several tens of thousand yuan of his ownmoney to buy the "villa."
As we left Zhangzhuang,we noticed a family throwing a party."It's an engagement party," said Zhang."A girl from WangiuoTown took a fancy to our new viIlage and to a young man in ourvillage.0nee the move is made to the new house,they'll gethitched."
Uprooting Is Tough
It's hard to express in words the emotional engagement be-tween Chinese people and their land.They farm it,inhabit it,and their lives are rooted in it.Learning from previous lessons, the local government decided to resettle all the 162,000 peoplewithin their home province of Henan.Even so,it will involvefarming families leaving their roots with no prospect of return;more importantly,it means letting go of the tightly woven webof ties - the blood ties and social relations - that bind them tothis place.
On constructions across the planned reservoir area,onekeeps seeing a whitewashed horizontal line marked "172 me-ters." This is the planned impoundment level and anyone livingbelow that line has to leave.
The line runs across Yaowan Village,Jinhe Town,where 65-year-old Wang Tingyan has a house just below the line,whilehis two daughters live above it.His second daughter lives only200 meters from her dad,and often sends him down sometasty roodshe has cooked up.Once he moves away,it won't beeasy for his daughters to look after him.
Brothers Ling Yingjun and Ling Yingxiang were among thefirst batch of migrants out of Linggang Village last year.Beforemoving,they swept the graves of their great-grandparents,grandparents,parents,uncles and aunts.Soon these graveswould be under water,and this was the final chance to pay re-spects to their forebears.
Ms.Zhang Caiman,in charge of relocation there,recalledthe eve of resettlement,when all the houses had been demol-ished.She saw an old granny,eyes full of tears as she sat infront of what had been her home for all her long life,now re-duced to a pile of rubble and dust."What could I say? I knewanything I could say would seem empty."
Driving through Xiehuan,fields of green wheat spread outbefore us.The wheat was already about a foot high,like a thick,soft blanket.From time to time,local official Xia Jifeng pointedto a stretch of land and said this would be under water nextyear.Though there was only a month to go before moving outthe second batch of migrants,many people were still workingthe fields.They were probably inured to a life on the brink ofrelocation.No matter when the relocation happened,the landstill needed planting for whatever harvest might be reaped.Little Buddies
In Xichuan's Memorial Hall of the South-to-North WaterDiversion Project,there is a group of sculptures portrayingscenes of people leaving their homeland and relatives.One isof two pupils encouraging each other and promising to meetagain when they are older.This dream came true for two pals.
The morning we set off to Xichuan we learned that ZhouBin,in charge of relocation in Henan Province,would arrangeto reunite best buddies Xiong Lingxia and Li Pei.
Eight-year-old Xiong used to live in Yuying village of TaoheTownship,and Li,a year older,used to live in Shangzhai Vil-lage.Just a stretch of road separated the two villages.Fromkindergarten to second grade they were in the same class andwent to school together everyday.Xiong said they were deskmates and very best friends.
In August 2010,Xiong moved to Wanjin Town,Zhaoling District of Luohe City,while Li moved to Shuangmiao Town-ship,Xiangeheng County of Xuchang City.The two places are110 km distant and the previously inseparable pair had notseen each other since.
"I miss her so much," Xiong told a journalist last March,"Ieven dreamed we were playing together." The project office incharge of Danjiangkou Reservoir relocation decided to bringthe two pals together again.
On April 9 Xiong came to Li's new house.They hugged eachother tight."I didn't see you when we moved.I miss you somuch.Today is a total surprise," sobbed little Li.Xiong tookout the gift she'd brought along,a red hair band,and arrangedit on Li's head.They encouraged each other to study hard andpromised to be best friends forever and ever.
Better Village,Better Life
Liuji Town of Zhongmou County,20 km east of Zhengzhou,is a pilot resettlement site.Its Yaowan New Village has 1,o94people in 250 households,and every new house has a yard.There is a primary school and access to water channels andhighways.Every one has been allocated 7o0 square meters offarmland,and the village has 240,000 square meters of fishbreeding ponds.
Yao Genhuai is busy building a support for cucumber vinesin his plastic greenhouse.The vines are about a man's heightand bear thumb-size fruits.The 47o-square-meter tent was putup last year,using RMB 2o,ooo of Yao's savings and a govern-ment subsidy of RMB 70,000.In addition to that,he has con-traeted 14,ooo square meters offish pools.He can easily maketens of thousands ofyuan a year.
Speaking of life changes,Yao told us every household hastap water,gas,a flush toilet - life is much easier now.Prox-imity to Zhengzhou means they have more job opportunities.Even unskilled workers can make ILMB 70 a day in the city.Hisonly grouch is the weather."My hometown has mountains andrivers,the air is better,the wind not so strong.It's warmer thanhere in winter."
Yao's neighbor,57-year-old Li Xiaonii,has two sons.Herhouse and her sons' houses are next to each other.Her sonsand their wives are working down south in Shenzhen,leavingtheir parents and a two-year-old son at home.Li and her hus-band have planted 2,600 square meters of farmland,which canprovide their own food and about 4,ooo yuan of income everyyear.Without others to help,she couldn't erect a greenhouse,and has sublet her fish pond allocation for an annual rent of1,700 yuan.On top of that,the government has allocated 600yuan per migrant per year for 20 years.So,with the monthlyremittances from her two sons as well,Li is very content withher economic situation.
According to Guo Guiming,director of the General Officeof Henan Provincial Migrant Of'flee,the resettlement projectfully embodies the lessons drawn from previous experiences.With a people-oriented philosophy,the government carriedout a detailed resettlement plan including compensation poli-cies and planning standards,to ensure that those resettledcould sueeessfully adapt and live a better life in their newabodes.