The last residents of Gaoyang, in central Hubei province, left on Tuesday. The evacuation marks the end of a four-year exodus, during which at least 1.4 million people have been moved to make way for the waters behind the world’s largest dam project.
A large mudslide hit a village in the Gaoyang area in April, Reuters reported, sweeping into the local school’s playground.
Chinese vice premier Li Keqiang recently told a meeting of the Office of the State Council Three Gorges Project Construction Committee that
the relocation of local residents "was a long-term mission".
In September 2007, state media reported Chinese officials as saying that the dam had caused myriad ecological problems in the region,
including "more frequent landslides and pollution".
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