Poverty Alleviation of Ministry of Water Resources

　　【Overview】 In 2010, the Ministry of Water Resources continued to conduct fixed-point poverty alleviation in water conservancy in 7 key counties for national poverty alleviation and development, including Fengdu of Chongqing, Wulong, Yunyang, Wuxi, Kai County, Chengkou and Fang County of Hubei Province, continued to promote the implementation of pilot projects for poverty relief in water conservancy in Tongren and Bijie of Guizhou Province – two key regions for poverty alleviation in water conservancy jointly with Guizhou Provincial Government, and continued to guide the poverty reduction in water conservancy nationwide.

　　In 2010, to implement the spirit of the "Circular on Promoting Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation" (Ting Zi [2010] No. 2) jointly issued by the General Office of the Central Committee and General Office of the State Council, the Ministry of Water Resources continued to conduct fixed-point poverty alleviation through irrigation project support, counterpart support and sending cadres.

　　In 2010, 806.7 million Yuan was issued by the central government for the irrigation project construction in the 7 counties, of which 220.71 million Yuan was for rural safe drinking water projects, 40.45 million Yuan for embankment projects, 35.6 million Yuan for dam reinforcement projects, 386.8 million Yuan for water resources projects, 59.52 million Yuan for large irrigation matching projects and water-saving transformation projects, 24 million Yuan for small farmer key counties, 35.92 million Yuan for soil and water conservation and 3.7 million Yuan for hydropower projects. It solved the safe drinking water problem of 579,200 people in the 7 counties, increased, recovered and improved irrigation area of 239600 mu, controlled soil erosion area of ​​102.64 square kilometers and increased installed capacity of 18,100 kilowatts of small hydropower stations.

　　In 2010, 37 departments and units affiliated to the Ministry of Water Resources designated for fixed-point poverty alleviation vigorously carried out the activities of donations to schools and warmth delivery. They donated a total of 480,000 Yuan, subsidized 168 poor students, helped 80 poor households, improved the teaching conditions of 2 primary and secondary schools, held 3 water conservancy technical trainings for 150 person-times and carried out poverty alleviation by science and education.

　　In May, it sent the 6th working group and three people to support the fixed-point poverty alleviation in Chongqing and Hubei.

　　In 2010, it conducted the final assessment on the implementation of the “Planning of Ministry of Water Resources on Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation (2001-2010)”; produced the promotion video for fixed-point poverty alleviation in water conservancy –"Love in the Landscape"; made propaganda for poverty alleviation in water conservancy and reported stories of poverty relief cadres through news media and established the picture audio and video database for poverty alleviation in water conservancy.

　　【Pilot projects of poverty alleviation in water conservancy】In 2010, about 714 million Yuan of central government water conservancy funds was issued to Tongren, of which 89 million Yuan was for rural safe drinking water projects, 181 million Yuan for irrigation water resource projects, 28 million Yuan for large irrigation area improvement projects, 51 million Yuan for small-scale water conservancy projects, 22 million Yuan for reservoir reinforcement projects, 108 million Yuan for small and medium-sized river governance, 18 million Yuan for soil and water conservation and ecological construction, 98 million Yuan for rural hydroelectric and electrification projects, 10 million Yuan for county-level non-engineering measures for flood and disaster prevention and 109 million Yuan for non-engineering measures of pilot work. It solved the safe drinking water problem of 204,700 rural residents and 26,200 rural teachers and students, improved water and soil erosion area of ​​60,000 square meters, increased hydropower installed capacity of 38,700 kilowatts and increased effective and supplementary irrigation area of 99,700 mu.

　　During the five years from 2006 to 2010, a total of 3.81 billion Yuan was invested in the construction of water conservancy projects in the pilot areas, 2.5 times the investment during the “10th Five-Year Plan” period. It has fully completed the task of pilot project planning, water conservancy construction and reform and basically achieved the goals of pilot projects and the leapfrog development of water conservancy industry in pilot areas, which accelerated poverty alleviation and development, new rural construction and regional economic and social development and achieved good economic and social benefits.

　　【Support for key water conservancy projects】 In 2010, about 490 million Yuan of central government’s water conservancy funds was issued in Bijie, 1.9 times that in 2009 (260 million Yuan), reaching a record high, mainly for rural drinking water safety, dam reinforcement, key water resource project construction, ecological construction and other livelihood and water conservancy projects. First, 192 million Yuan of central government funds was allocated to solve the drinking water safety problem of 420,000 rural residents and 92,400 rural teachers and students; Second, 76.88 million Yuan of central government funds was allocated to support the construction of three medium-sized reservoirs –Daotian River, Jinsha Shengtian and Zhijinda New Bridge in Beijie and two medium-sized reservoirs in Jinchan of Nayong County and Fulang of Qianxi County and speed up the preparation work of Jiayan Hydro-junction Reservoir; Third, 24.54 million Yuan of central government funds was issued to construct four small and medium river improvement projects; based on the pilot project of flash flood control in Jinsha County, it listed five counties (cities) of Bijie among the counties for flash flood control in 2010 and issued 10 million Yuan of central government subsidy; Fourth, 7.12 million Yuan of central government funds was issued to support the reinforcement of 12 key small reservoirs; Fifth, 23 million Yuan of central government funds was allocated to support the construction of small farmland and water conservancy projects. Meanwhile, it continued to implement small farmland and water conservancy projects in Jinsha County and included Qianxi County into the key counties for small farmland and water conservancy project construction; arranged provincial government investment in Weining County according to the standard for key counties; actively promoted the implementation of the planning for allocation of grain –half mu per person; continued to construct smoke water projects and accelerated the construction of medium-sized Red Flag irrigation areas. In 2010, 395,100 mu of effective irrigation area was added in Bijie; Sixth, 124 million Yuan of central government funds was allocated for rocky desertification control and ecological construction, and  ​​202.3 square kilometers of soil erosion area was expected to be improved. As of 2010, 167.19 square kilometers of soil erosion area had been improved and all the 8 counties in Bijie were listed among the pilot counties for desertification control. Three counties including Nayong were listed among the pilot counties for comprehensive soil erosion control in cultivated land and sloping field and 18,750 mu of sloping field are expected to be transformed into terrace soon.

　　【Preferential policies for poverty alleviation】In 2010, the central government continued to strengthen support for water conservancy construction projects in the central and western regions and issued preferential policies: First, the central government no longer demanded the prefecture-level counties, counties, contiguous poor areas with special difficulties, prefectures and cities to issue matching funds for public welfare projects (Guo Fa [2010] No. 33 "Several Opinions on Promoting the Implementation of Western Development Strategy"); Second, the 26 old industrial base cities in the central six provinces implemented the relevant policies for the revitalization of northeast old industrial bases, and the 243 less developed counties implemented the policies for western development (Guo Ban Han [2008] No. 15 "Notice of the General Office of the State Council for Six Central Provinces to Implement the Policies for the Revitalization of Northeast Old Industrial Bases and Western Development"; Third, the state strengthened support for the construction of public welfare projects and public welfare-based rural infrastructure, environmental protection and social undertaking projects, and no longer demanded matching funds from counties for rural public welfare project construction (Guo Han [2009] No. 130 Document to approve the "Planning for the Rise of Central Regions"); Fourth, from the fourth quarter of 2008 onwards, the central investment proportions for western and central regions respectively rose from 66% and 50% to 80% and 60% for water conservancy project constructions, including rural drinking water safety, large-scale irrigation area matching projects, water-saving and transformation projects, dangerous reservoirs risk-elimination reinforcement and other related projects; Fifth, priority was given to the water conservancy projects in western regions, especially poverty-stricken areas in the implementation of relevant planning.

　　【Priority of investment in poverty alleviation】In 2010, 17.6 billion Yuan was allocated for the construction of water conservancy projects in 592 key counties for national poverty alleviation and development, mainly for rural drinking water safety, dam reinforcement, key water resource project construction, ecological construction and other livelihood projects: First, central government funds of 5.69 billion Yuan were arranged to solve the drinking water safety problem of 15.39 million people; Second, central government funds of 2.39 billion Yuan were allocated to construct 275 medium and small river improvement projects; pilot projects for flash flood control were implemented and 137 counties were listed as pilot counties for flash flood control; 274 million Yuan was issued; Third, arranged central government investment of 1.67 billion Yuan to support the reinforcement of 707 key small dangerous reservoirs; Fourth, 1.56 billion Yuan of central government funds was issued to support small farmland and water conservancy project construction and construct irrigation area matching projects and water-saving projects. In 2010, effective irrigation area of ​​5,320,000 mu was increased in the 592 key counties; Fifth, 3.137 billion Yuan of central government funds was issued to support ecological construction and soil erosion area of ​​12,083 square kilometers was improved; Sixth, the central government invested 230 million Yuan to support the construction of electrification counties in poor areas and implement the projects for electricity to replace fuel, and increased installed capacity of 1 million kilowatts for small hydropower stations.