1st Ld: 28,000 More People to Be Resettled on Former Shooting Rangein NW China

1st Ld: 28,000 more people to be resettled on former shooting range in NW China

YINCHUAN, March 24 (Xinhua) — A further 28,000 people in drought- plagued Gansu Province in northwest China will be resettled in an irrigated area of land that has been converted from a former artillery range, bringing the total number of relocated residents to 200,000.

The Hongsibao Area resettlement program began in 1995 when the 40- year-old former People’s Liberation Army shooting range, which used to cover an area of 55,300 hectares along the Yellow River, was opened up to 6,190 poverty-stricken farmers from the adjacent area of Xihaigu.

Drought is the main cause of poverty in Xihaigu as the area receives less than 200 mm of rainfall each year. More than 70 percent of its two million inhabitants were living under the poverty line by the middle of the 1980s despite government efforts to eliminate poverty. The harsh living conditions have put Xihaigu on UNESCO’s list of most unlivable places on earth.

“We had nine years of drought in a decade. My whole family could only harvest 75 kilograms of grain during the best year,” Ding Shengui, who was resettled in Hongsibao in 1999, said, recalling life in Tongxin county in Xihaigu.

“Due to lack of grain, the local farmers started to dig for a strain of herbal grass root to sell them to traditional medicine makers. But this further deteriorated the ecosystem and vegetation,” Ding said.

After moving to Hongsibao, Ding’s family can harvest 750 kilograms of grain a year from their 0.67 ha of land irrigated by eight pumping stations that transfer water from the Yellow River.

More than 26,800 ha of irrigated land has now been developed to support a total of 200,000 people.

Resettlement has also improved the environment. Local government started to distribute saplings to farmers in 1998. Nearly 69,000 ha of trees have been planted and 39 percent of the region has been covered by forest.

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