The Chinese government has begun to compensate half a million farmers in the eastern province of Anhui whose cropland was ruined by floodwater diverted to their land this summer.

The Huaihe River, China's third largest, suffered its worst flood since 1954 in July and, in order to protect major dams and cities, the local government was forced to divert floodwater to 10 adjacent buffer zones, of which nine are in Anhui.

The province had to evacuate more than 10,300 people and flood nearly 34,000 hectares of cropland to divert 1.5 billion cubic meters of floodwater.

"The farmers will be compensated about one yuan (0.14 U.S. dollar) for each square meter of cropland submerged," said Zhang Xiaowu, an official with the provincial water resources department.

But he admitted the compensation would only offset 70 percent of the income farmers lost in the failed summer harvest.

Seventy percent may be an ambitious figure for those farmers who only own 1,340 square meters of cropland, entitling them to 1,340 yuan.

The average net income of a farmer in Anhui is 2,900 yuan a year.

During a visit to the flood-hit areas in July, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised adequate compensation to the villagers.

A 100-member team, comprising county, township and village officials as well as representatives elected by the villagers, visited the farmers' families in August and September to calculate their losses.

Fearing a repeat of the debacle in 2003 in which more than 200 officials in the province were penalized for embezzling portions of a 170-million-yuan flood compensation fund, local officials have tried to make the allocation of funds more transparent.

"The compensation for each family was publicized and the amount was paid directly to the farmers in bank cards to avoid misappropriation," said Zhang Guangshou, vice director of the provincial finance department.

He said all the compensation would be paid by December 15.

This year, the state treasury has set aside 332 million yuan (44.9 million U.S. dollars) to compensate flood-affected farmers in Anhui and the neighboring Henan and Jiangsu provinces. This accounts for 70 percent of the total compensation amount, with the remaining 30 percent coming from provincial treasuries.

The Huaihe River originates in central Henan Province and runs east between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, cutting through Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu before entering the Yangtze at the vast Hongze Lake.

(Xinhua News Agency, December 5, 2007)