Relocation program helps Gande county villagers attain new lives

Longya village, Shanggongma township, Gande county, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province, resident Suo Ji poses in front of her new home at the hamlet’s relocation site. (Xinhua/Zhang Long)

A mountainous community with inconvenient transportation and poor living conditions, Longya village, Shanggongma township, Gande county, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province, was impoverished until several years ago. Working-age members of the hamlet’s 67 households worked as herders, but they and their families lived in poverty due to the harsh circumstances that they found themselves in.

In 2016, the Gande government implemented a special relocation program in order to assist impoverished citizens living in inhospitable parts of the county, which made it possible for Longya’s residents to move to a modern resettlement site equipped with electricity, running water and better transportation. Seventy wind turbines were also erected in the village, and photovoltaic arrays were mounted to every home that was built. Longya’s inhabitants now work as environmental managers and in other environmental protection jobs that the government has created and obtain additional income from the surplus power that the renewable energy systems that were constructed generate.