WUHAN,Feb.2 (Xinhuanet)--More than 200,000 residents will be relocated to make way for the construction of the middle section of China's massive south-north water-diversion project.

    An investigation group is now verifying the number of people to be displaced, who are mainly in Central China's Hubei and Henan provinces.

    The massive project began construction on December 27 last year. It will divert water from the Yangtze, China's longest river, to the country's drought-ridden northern area through three diversion routes.

    Investment in the first phase of construction of the project's eastern and middle routes has already reached 124 billion yuan (US$14 million). Once the first phase of construction is completed, about 13.4 billion cubic metres of water can be transferred from the Yangtze to the north annually.

    To ensure the Yangtze water flows northward, the dam of the Danjiangkou reservoir - the water source of the middle diversion route - must be raised by 14.6 metres so that its water storage capacity will increase to 29.1 billion cubic metres, about 1.16 billion cubic metres more than its original capacity.

    However, the dam-raising project requires the relocation of some locals.

    In 1990, the Yangtze River Water Resources Committee concluded that about 15,667 hectares of land - covering five cities and counties in Hubei and Henan provinces - needed to be submerged so the dam could be raised and that about 224,000 locals would be displaced.

    But the local population has increased. The committee estimated last year that 275,000 locals needed to be relocated, 260,000 of whom were farmers.

    Li Changjiu, a farmer in his 50s living in Xichuan County of Henan Province, told reporters that he hoped to leave his village as soon as possible because the place is too poor.

    According to sources from water conservation departments as well as departments in charge of resident relocation in Hubei and Henan provinces, about 90 per cent of the locals now living in the Danjiangkou reservoir area are willing to move, mainly due to poverty.

    Liu Jianguo, an official in Xichuan County , said relocation means development opportunities for locals living in poverty.Enditem