350,000 in drought region to be relocated

A child in Jiefangxinzhuang village of Tongxin county, Ningxia Hui autonomous region of Northwest China on Aug 12, 2011. About 350,000 people from 1,655 villages in nine counties of Ningxia are to be relocated from their hometowns in the next five years due to constant drought. The remote, mountainous area, designated as unsuitable for living by the United Nations World Food Development Program in 1972, has an annual rainfall of 300 mm, and about 1.05 million people are living in poverty, with 350,000 in extreme poverty. The overall investment for the relocation is 10.5 billion yuan ($1.6 billion). [Photo/Xinhua] 

A woman stands in front of her adobe house in Jiefangxinzhuang village of Tongxin county, Ningxia Hui autonomous region of Northwest China on Aug 12, 2011.