Welfare Effect Analysis Of Water Transfer Projects: The Case Of Danjiangkou

This thesis presents an exploratory research by analyzing the welfare effects resulted from initial stages of implementation of South North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP), the Middle Route plan, water source in Danjiangkou and Bai Long town in Hubei Province in China. The effects to Land, Supporting Projects, Local Government budget and Income distribution among people of the surveyed area and proposition over the means to resolve these effects have been pointed out.Though many researches have been done on this project, which is going to alleviate water scarcity for 300-325M people in the northern China and said to be economically accepted by some important organs, such as World Bank and the Chinese government. The question of welfare satisfaction has not been fully explored in the course of implementation of this project. This study points out the effects that have faced similar projects inside China and outside, and describing the impacts that are already experienced in Danjiangkou and Bai Long town on the aforementioned variables.Case studies, of selected cases of Danjiangkou and Bai Long town have been studied in this research. The selected sample was restricted to those who have somewhat be affected by the initial stages of implementation in Danjiangkou City. Formal and informal interviews ware conducted to gather perception of the people and experiences regarding the project execution. More data have been obtained from Hubei Provincial, and respective local government statistics bureau. The information processed by SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) and results used in the descriptive analysis to indicate the extent of the effects.The result from descriptive analysis indicates that 61.4% of the respondents agreed that, there exist negative effects among the independent variables; hence negative welfare effects resulted from implementing this gigantic project. A total of 32.5 % reported absence of the negative effects. Issues such as resettlement, unemployment, poor economic activities, loss of income, and environmental changes were pointed out.Further cultural effects and a social unrest of people resulted from demolishing the historical cultural relics and threat of wild animals, are among the contradictions betweenthe national goal of economic development and the need to implement at the local leveland the resulting welfare effects caused. The government at all levels need to beorganized to synchronize the central government goals to achieve a sustainable development and ensure a better welfare conditions as well as solving the water shortages in the northern regions of china.