Comments on the "four rights" of Immigrants Affected by Dam Construction

This paper was submitted by villagers affected by the Manwan Dam to the UN Symposium on Hydropower and Sustainable Development held in Beijing in October 2004. According to the paper, it has been 18 years since the start of construction of the Manwan Dam, yet the living conditions of the resettled people have not yet improved. The government promised affected people that ‘When Manwan Dam generates hydropower resettled people will achieve a rich standard of living". However, the situation of today is that the living tandards are lower than their level before the construction of the dam. In 2004, the Yunnan Provincial Department of Auditing found that RMB 5.46 Million of funds meant for resettlement were abused by the local government. This is because the resettled people do not have the ‘four rights’ in the resettlement process: the right to be informed; the right to participate; the right to make decisions; and, the right to supervise/monitor.