Collective efforts can eradicate poverty

Despite being the world's second largest economy with a total population of 1.3 billion, China still struggles to transform the lives and living conditions of about 70 million people that are still living in poverty.

It should be recalled that China was once described as the dark side on earth due to its previous system of operating in isolation, but during the early 1970s they decided to implement the reform and opening-up policy.

South Sudan has an exceptional poverty problem, as the majority of the population lives far below the poverty level. This is a problem that affects development.

Reform and opening over the years has helped transform the Chinese economy, which depended largely on agriculture during the 1980s, into an industrial economy that is the second largest on the planet.

Despite this achievement, China is still among a developing country with 70 million people living under the poverty line.

The Chinese government over the years has been putting measures in place to see how it can completely eliminate poverty from the lives of those people before the end of 2020, which is the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) that started this year.

One province where the Chinese central government, together with the local government, has successfully been fighting poverty is Ningxia Province, most specifically in the Xiji-Haiyuan-Guyuan region.

This area is the poorest in China. Back in 1982, the poverty rate was as high as 74.8%.

According to Cai Guoying, a standing member of the Ningxia Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Ningxia has been the pioneer of China's poverty alleviation and development movements since 1982. After 30 years of hard work, the Xiji-Haiyuan-Guyuan area was revolutionized and entered a new era.

Cai Guoying made the explanation during a meeting with African journalists who visited Ningxia Province on June 12.

He explained that the poverty alleviation and development movement in Ningxia went through five periods and carved out a practical method in line with regional characteristics based on nine measures.

Cai added that in order to resolve the problem of drought, many large-scale hydraulic projects were constructed and 200 reservoirs were built.

He said, "The infrastructure transfers more than 500 million cubic meters of water into the Xiji-Haiyuan-Guyuan area every year, which can water 102,000 hectares of farmland, resolve the drinking safety problem of 1.9 million people and increase the rate of tap water coverage to 72%."

"In Yinchuan City, the capital of Ningxia, two middle schools were built to enroll poor students from Xiji-Haiyuan-Guyuan area and professional education and training is free and agriculture-related training is subsidized," he recalled.

Financial subsidies are provided to the poor areas. At the end of 2015, 77.1% of dangerous housing was transformed or rebuilt and 1.16 million people were relocated voluntarily.

In one of the transformed villages where some of the poor people were relocated, Heshun Village in Liangtian Township of Jingling District, Yinchuan, people are now living in modern houses and engage in small-scale business for their livelihood.

African leaders can implement some of these strategies in combating poverty which is constituting a serious epidemic across the continent, with particular reference to South Sudan, where there is abundant water but still people find it very difficult to access safe drinking water and proper education.