Farmers build lives away from flood plains

Looking back, it seems to Zhang Bo that his father spent his whole life building houses.

"Every summer, my father would worry that our roof would leak and a flood would hit the village at night," said Zhang, Party chief of Caolou village, which sits next to the Yellow River, in Guide subdistrict, Jinan, capital of Shandong province.

For farmers like Zhang, the Yellow River, dubbed the "Mother River of China", has long nourished the land, but it has also brought floods that have damaged their houses. "My father built four houses during his life, after the old ones were damaged by floodwater," Zhang said.

His hometown is located in the flood lain between the main channel and high levees. In Shandong, more than 600,000 people live in the flood plain of the Yellow River, which covers an area of about 1,700 square kilometers.

Data from the Yellow River conservancy authorities show that the river's flood plain in Shandong has had 48 floods since 1950, affecting 12,300 villages and approximately 6.65 million residents. The area of flood-prone farmland totals nearly 787,300 hectares.

Many on the flood plains have spent heavily on rebuilding their houses and have had to borrow money, which has become a major cause of poverty. To make matters worse, as soon as their debts are cleared, the river floods again.

In order to protect the local residents from flooding and lift them out of poverty, a relocation plan was launched in August 2017, to be completed this year. It involves moving people from the flood plains of the Yellow River in Shandong, including the cities of Jinan, Zibo, Dongying, Jining, Tai'an, Binzhou and Heze, and the construction of new houses in safer locations.

Wang Xianlun, 77, who previously lived in Zhuzhong village in Guide, is among the relocated residents. A year ago, he settled in Chongdeyuan, a core community in the subdistrict and home to more than 5,400 residents from 18 villages.

"I lived on the banks of the Yellow River all my life. Over the decades, I had to rebuild my house every 10 years or so. I never dreamed that I could leave the flood plain and move into such a new building," Wang said.

Wang Yunsong, an employee of Guide, said: "Each person is assigned 33 square meters in the six-story buildings, which are fitted with elevators.

There are seven types of apartments for the residents to choose from, and they are equipped with gas, heating and solar water heaters."

Primary schools, kindergartens, and centers for recreation and sports, community services and an elderly care center have been built to facilitate the people's daily needs, Wang Yunsong said.

To solve employment problems, jobs in property management, cleaning and sanitation in the community are given to relocated residents. Once they have received free skills training, jobs are available in nearly 100 enterprises in an industrial park near the community.

Liu Yue'e, 43, a villager from Juancheng county in Heze, gave up on the idea of rebuilding her old house in the flood plain after hearing of the government's relocation plan. In November, residents of 1,116 households from six villages in Dongkou, Juancheng, including Liu, left their homes on the flood plain and moved to a relocation site known as the Yellow River Community. "We are satisfied. The new building is comfortable," Liu said.

Now, Liu makes wigs in a workshop near her home, while her son studies in the town and her husband works in the coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong. She said her family's dream of a new life has come true.