Shaanxi to investigate villagers' water woes

Shaanxi province has organized an investigation panel to look into problems reported by China Central Television in poverty alleviation and consolidation work in two villages, the provincial information office said in a notice posted on its WeChat account on Saturday.

The province will make the investigation results public in a timely manner, it said.

In a report broadcast by CCTV on Friday, villagers in Shanghe and Sanxing in Lingkou, Luonan county, said they were still facing drinking water shortages after being lifted out of poverty, with water facilities not put in place.

CCTV reported that families had left a resettlement site because it lacked water facilities, which caused a shortage. It also reported that villagers traveled far out of their villages to get water, and the water they got needed to be filtered before it could be used.

Resettled families left the site for personal reasons, Wang Yabin, deputy director of the poverty alleviation and development bureau of Luonan, was quoted as saying by Beijing News on Sunday.

A report from an initial investigation conducted by the bureau said four families moved to the resettlement site after water was put in place in May 2018. They started to leave the site in January last year for personal reasons, including two who returned to live with their guardians.

Water sources in the two villages can guarantee villagers' daily use of drinking water, according to county's investigation report.

Villagers who traveled long distances to get water needed more to irrigate tobacco fields and build houses, the county's investigation report said.

Due to its bad geographical location, Shanghe has been short of water for years. Villagers have been collecting rainwater and using water from a nearby river. Since 2012, a water pipeline has been transporting water from the mountain to the village, Beijing News reported.

"But in dry seasons, there is no water to be transported via the water pipeline," a former Party secretary of Shanghe was quoted as saying.

Luonan is located in a mountainous area and was removed from the list of poor counties in February last year. Ensuring the safety of drinking water is the bottom line for the county's poverty alleviation work, according to the central government's requirements.

China implemented a five-year transition period this year, during which favorable policies adopted in the poverty-reduction era will be kept in place as part of efforts to prevent people from falling back into poverty.