China Dam Spells Apocalypse for Many
11/3/97
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Headline: China Dam Spells Apocalypse for Many
Source: Reuters
Date: 11/3/97
Author: Scott Hillis
FULING, China, Nov 3 (Reuters) - High on a hill in China's Yangtze River
city of Fuling, a big red warning sign announces the coming of an
apocalypse: ``177 metres -- Three Gorges Water Inundation Line.''
It gives ominous notice of the largest peacetime forced migration in history
-- the relocation of 1.2 million people to make way for the gargantuan Three
Gorges dam.
When the Yangtze is partially blocked on Saturday for construction of the
world's mightiest dam, the river will start its climb towards the marker,
consigning hundreds of thousands of homes, farms and factories to a watery
mass grave.
Some 50,000 people have already abandoned their homes along the river's
banks.
A multitude of others will eventually be forced from their ancestral lands
by a 600-km (365-mile) long lake to be created by the dam near Yichang in
central Hubei province.
The river is expected to rise by 30-40 cm (12-16 inches) initially, and
swelling water levels will force another 40,000 people to head to higher
ground by the end of this year.
HUMAN RIGHTS OUTRAGE
The forced eviction of families from their ancestral homes has stirred deep
unease in China, where respect for one's forebears is an overriding virtue.
Abandoning the ground where ancestors lived, died and were buried amounts to
sacrilege.
China's communist rulers fear popular wrath, and are struggling to convey a
sense of caring and compassion. State media showed Premier Li Peng smiling
and shaking hands with local residents this week.
``It is vital to solve the problem of resettlement,'' said Ou Huishu, deputy
director of the resettlement bureau of Chongqing, China's largest metropolis
that embraces Fuling.
Activists opposed to the dam blast the relocation as a violation of human
rights on a huge scale.
``It will definitely cause social unrest,'' said Dai Qing, an outspoken
critic of the dam.
Dai's 1989 book ``Yangtze! Yangtze!,'' which argues the project is a
monstrous white elephant, has been banned in China.
Officials say the dam will propel China's economy into the 21st century and
have pledged the relocation will bring greater prosperity.
Of the project's estimated 240 billion yuan ($29 billion) price tag, some
100 billion yuan ($12 billion) is earmarked to compensate residents for
their lost homes and to build new roads, water systems and power lines.
Authorities are pressuring successful companies in China's more prosperous
coastal regions to open factories in resettled areas to create jobs.
``We are confident that we have the ability to complete this historic
task,'' said Ou.
TAKE-IT-OR-LEAVE-IT
Many Yangtze River residents reluctantly agree the dam will be good for
China, but grumble about everything from the price of the new concrete
houses and apartments to corruption among local officials supervising the
scheme.
Officials are offering take-it-or-leave-it compensation deals that pay
farmers and city dwellers according to floor space, rather than the market
value of their homes.
``The compensation doesn't cover the money I spent fixing up the place,''
said 42-year-old tour boat captain Li Xingquan.
In Sichuan province's Guihua village, sweet potato farmer Guo Qingmu said
she was paid 15,000 yuan ($1,800) for her old 84 square metre (904 sq ft)
home, not nearly enough to pay for a spacious new house with electricity and
tapwater.
Guo, 31, said she had to borrow more than 40,000 yuan ($4,800) from family
and friends to buy her new home, which cost 60,000 yuan ($7,200) and is
twice the size of her former abode.
``What alternative do we have? Our homes will be flooded, so we have to come
here,'' said Guo's brother, Guo Qingfu.
LEAVING ANCESTRAL LANDS
Farmers uprooted from fertile plots that grow some of China's best oranges
complain about their new holdings on unwelcoming soil.
``The newly-developed land will be a little bit worse,'' conceded Zhou
Jinhua, mayor of Wanxian city, which administers a vast area now home to
more than two thirds of all the people doomed to be displaced.
Farmers have each been promised about 0.067 hectares (0.165 acres) of land.
But in some areas, the supply of new farmland is inadequate, a problem
officials pledge to solve by redistributing land now worked by farmers in
other villages.
Other officials concede it will be hard to overcome traditional Chinese
attitudes towards ancestral homes.
``The farmers are used to living on their own land and don't really want to
move,'' said Shi Huanyun, an education official in Wanxian county.
``It is not a money problem, it is a matter of feelings.''