The government of north China's coal-rich Shanxi Province is to
spend 1.19 billion yuan (US$155 million) this year on areas
disfigured by coal mining.
According to a government plan made public recently, the money
will be spent on reinforcing houses or building new houses as well
supplying drink water to 170,000 rural residents in 201 villages
where the land has been scarred by coal mining.
Over the course of 2007, about 30,000 rural households will be
relocated and 3,000 refurbished. About 200 wells will be drilled
and 1,667 hectares of farmland will be reclaimed, the report
said.
As China's biggest coal producer, Shanxi now 676 villages facing
geological disasters caused by mining. Five thousand square
kilometers of its land has been hollowed out.
The province aims to solve the problems facing all the 676
villages by the end of 2009.
(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2007)