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Sichuan to build homes for Tibetans

Authorities in Sichuan Province plan to spend 5 billion yuan (US$732 million) to settle 470,000 Tibetan herders in permanent houses, state media said, as part of efforts to promote the development of ethnic Tibetan areas.

Rioting broke out in ethnic Tibetan areas of Sichuan earlier this year after Lhasa was hit by violent protests against Chinese rule.

Over the next four years, the Sichuan government will build brick houses and villages including elementary schools, clinics, offices and “other public service infrastructure” for the Tibetan nomads, Xinhua news agency said in a report yesterday.

Of 533,000 herders in the province, 219,000 have no fixed residences and 254,000 are living in shanty homes, it said.

Provincial authorities also decided at a meeting on Friday to invite companies to design and make special tents and other goods to modernize the living standards of the herders, Xinhua said.

The agency did not detail how authorities would choose the locations of the villages or if the Tibetan families would face compulsory resettlement.

It said similar projects were carried out for Tibetan nomads in the Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai and Gansu provinces.

The Chinese government has announced a range of projects in recent months to promote the economic development of ethnic Tibetan areas.

Last month, Xinhua said the central government would spend US$3.1 billion by 2013 on a series of industrial schemes in Tibet, including 10 mining projects and five industrial zones.

Authorities in Lhasa began building a huge new district last November to help the city accommodate an influx of tourists and migrants that is scheduled to be finished next year. The Liuwu New District will “divert the city’s growing population and protect cultural relics,” state media said.

Critics among exiled Tibetans and Western rights activists say the development of Tibetan areas threatens traditional Tibetan culture and has allowed an influx of Han Chinese migrants.

MASS POISONING

In other news from China, the number of people sickened by contaminated water in Guangxi Province has risen to 450, more than double the previously reported figure, Xinhua said yesterday.

The residents of two villages began showing symptoms of poisoning last week, including swelling of the face and eyes, vomiting and blurred eyesight, Xinhua said.

Last week local officials had said 200 people became ill after drinking water contaminated by industrial waste from Jinhai Metallurgy Chemical, a branch of the state-owned Liuzhou China Tin Co. The factory has been closed since the contamination was detected.

Tests on all 647 people in the two villages showed that four have been diagnosed with arsenic poisoning, Xinhua said. A total of 55 people, 23 children and 32 seniors, remain hospitalized under observation. The remaining victims were given outpatient treatment and are recovering, the report said.

“The villagers were slightly poisoned. They can be cured in nine to 15 days with timely treatment,” Ge Xianmin, head of the regional disease prevention and control institute, was cited as saying.

Authorities in the nearby Hechi said torrential rains from a recent typhoon caused wastewater from the company to overflow into nearby ponds and wells.
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