A total of 50 households quit their homes near Danjiangkou reservoir dam on a Yangtze River tributary Thursday to make way for construction of the central route of a massive south-to-north water diversion scheme linking the Yangtze River to parched north China.

The families, 201 people in total, will resettle in housing not far from their ancestral homes, said Chen Huaping, deputy chief with the press center of the publicity department of Danjiangkou City Committee of the Communist Party of China, in central China's Hubei Province.

They are part of the 9,600 residents who are set to be moved by the end of this year in a pilot resettlement plan designed to gain experience for future programs, said Chen.

"They moved into apartments bought in downtown Danjiangkou with compensation funds provided by the government, and the resettlers were compensated for their former houses, as well as trees, pigsties and other public utilities around the houses," said Chen. He did not disclose the amount of compensation.

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project, has eastern, central and western routes, and is designed to divert water from the water-rich south, mainly the Yangtze, the country's longest river, to the arid north.

The eastern and central routes are under construction. The western route, meant to replenish the Yellow River with water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze through tunnels in the high mountains of western China, is at the planning stage.

The central route requires construction of an open-cut canal through which water will be drawn from Danjiangkou Reservoir on Hanjiang River, the longest tributary of the Yangtze River, before flowing to Beijing and Tianjin.

It will flood 41 rural townships and 16 urban towns in Hubei and Henan provinces, and 329,000 people will have to move. They will include nearly 100,000 residents in Danjiangkou City alone.

This route is scheduled for completion in 2013, and operation in 2014. It would be able to divert 9.5 billion cubic meters of water on average a year and would benefit more than 30 million people.

Completion of this central route will improve the flood-combating capabilities of the middle and lower reaches of the Hanjiang River, said Li Hongzhong, governor of Hubei, last Thursday.

The three main projects in the central route are: raising of the existing Danjiangkou reservoir dam height from 162 meters to 176.6 meters, construction of a 1,432-kilometer-long canal, and harnessing of the middle and lower reaches of the Hanjiang River.

According to Chen, apart from the moving of 201 people Thursday, 2,572 residents were moved well before the raising of the existing Danjiangkou reservoir dam could begin in September 2005.

The remaining resettlement task in Danjiangkou city will be finished in the next four years , said Chen.

(CCTV March 5, 2009)