Bitter-sweet life for resettlers in China's massive water project

Like many displaced by the south-to-north water diversion project, Zhao Jiufu will never forget the day he moved out of his ancestral home four years ago.

"My mother was over 80 but despite my protests, she walked 5 kilometers on the craggy mountain roads to see me off," said Zhao, 59.

He was one of over 3,700 villagers who moved at least 500 km from Anyang township in Yunxian county of Shiyan City to a new town in Tuanfeng County of Huanggang, in central China's Hubei Province.

They were resettled in 2010 because their former homes were in the Danjiangkou Reservoir area that supplied water to Beijing, Tianjin and the northern provinces of Hebei and Henan in the country's ambitious project to divert Yangtze river water from the south to the arid north.

"Almost everyone cried when we got on buses and left that familiar land," said Zhao.

He struggled to keep back tears and said to himself, "Just go and do not look back."

A former village official in Yunxian County, Zhao and his family had the choice to move into his parents' home, which was beyond the relocation area, if they wanted to avoid moving far.

"But if I chose to stay, how could I persuade my fellow villagers to move away?" said Zhao.

He kept telling the villagers that the new town would promise a better future: city jobs, bigger homes and better schools for their children.

Their new life has been largely appealing and some of them have indeed found jobs that are more lucrative than farming. But Zhao felt particularly guilty when his father died last year -- he was too far away to take care of him.

When he visited his mother last month, she insisted he should bring a pack of earth and a bottle of water. "These are symbols of my bond with my hometown."

RESETTLED FOR WATER

In the coming days, water from Hanjiang River, the Yangtze's largest tributary, will be running out of Beijinger's taps through 1,400 kilometers of pipelines and canals.