Dams and Impounded Rivers - River Dynamics and Integrated River Management - page 453

the riverbed erosion resulting from the sediment-starved flow may change the fluvial processes and some
meandering and braided sections of the river may become unstable, which may undermine the habitats of
the species. More studies are needed for protection of the white-flag dolphin.
7.4.3.7 Resettlement
If the reservoir water level rises to 175 m, a total of about 1.2 million people in 19 counties have to be
dislocated. Production facilities are inundated including 23,793 ha of farmland (paddy fields: 7,380 ha, and
dry farmland: 16,314 ha), and 4,960 ha of citrus orchards. Moreover, 956 km of highways and 941 factories
and mines are inundated as well. Eleven county towns and 107 towns have been moved to new sites.
Resettlement of the people in the submerged area started from 1989. The basic policy is to resettle
most of these people in the surrounding areas. The submerged and surrounding areas are densely populated
and poorly developed. In the areas to be settled the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is only
45% of the national average and the income per capita is only 53% of the national average. There is a lot
of room to develop local industry and the tourism industry. More than 80,000 dams have been built in
China and 10 million people have been dislocated. The government is carrying out a development
resettlement policy. The basic point is to change over from one time compensation for settlers at once to
overall arrangements for their production and living conditions for a long term.
There are about 2.7 million ha of barren hillside land within the territory of the 19 counties, more than
1% of which, or about 27,000 ha can be cultivated and utilized (Chen and Zhou, 1987). Experiments in
the reservoir area indicate that the barren slope-land may be transformed into terraced citrus orchards,
and then it is possible to produce an output value equal to as much as three times that of the original
farmland. Thus, the surrounding area is able to support most of the resettled farmers. Moreover, the
reservoir has a water surface of 67,000 ha for aquatic farming, which is a high production resource.
The resettled people are also encouraged to settle in other provinces at their choice. The State Council
has made a decision that all provincial governments should provide assistance for emigration and
resettlement. A number of economically developed provinces and municipalities have made agreements
with the counties in the reservoir area to assist the resettlement. Many people have found their homes in
lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Chongming Island at the river mouth, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region, Hainan, Heilongjiang, and other provinces.
Figure 7.48(a) shows the new houses in the area by the reservoir for the resettled people and Figure
7.48(b) shows the new county town of the Kaixian. Of the total population to be displaced, urban dwellers
(a) (b)
Fig. 7.48 (a) New village constructed on the slope higher than 185 m around the reservoir for resettlement of people
from the submerged area; (b) Newly constructed Kaixian county town (the old Kaixian town has been inundated by
the reservoir water) (See color figure at the end of this topic)