Since
April, thousands of people have lost their homes and farmland
due to annual floods, typhoons and hail in China. Exceptionally
heavy flooding has forced millions of people to evacuate, while
the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) has been supporting relief
activities in 14 provinces over the past three months.
Most recently, the RCSC provided first aid, food, and clothing
to thousands of people affected by tropical storm “Bilis,”
which left 198 people dead during the third week of July. The
RCSC maintains close contact with local communities throughout
China and with over 23 million members, the National Society
is well-positioned to respond to a variety of disasters.
But despite efforts to help those hit hardest by harsh weather,
each year an increasing number of rural farmers are finding
themselves faced with no other choice but to leave their families
behind and head for urban areas in search of more opportunities
and a better income.
China’s migrant workforce is made up of around 200 million
farmers-turned-laborers, who represent the largest population
movement in China’s history. For some families, money
generated by relatives in the city comprises up to 50 per cent
of their income.
At 58-years-old, Mrs. Zhao is an honest and hardworking woman
whose story is becoming increasingly common in China.
For the past 22 years, she has been working as a housekeeper
in Beijing. Sometimes, she misses the clean air and spring water
in her native village but she earns RMB 1,900 ($237 USD / €188)
– more than she could ever hope to make as a farmer.
All of her family members, including her husband, son and daughter,
moved to Beijing years ago to join her and all of them are working
as migrant workers somewhere in the city.
Mrs. Zhao is an Anhui native, who lived in Zhongwu Village of
Wuwei County for the first 36 years of her life. During this
time her family had no savings and the income generated by farming
barely covered the cost of food and her children’s school
fees.
Yet she remains very attached to Zhongwu and maintains an empty
house there, where she’ll live out the rest of her days
after she “gets really old and can’t work anymore”.
Zhongwu village is located in the eastern part of Anhui province,
not far away from Chao Lake. The village has more than 300 farmers
who all work in the rice fields.
Since it is a mountainous area, Mrs. Zhao did not suffer from
the yearly floods like her relatives living near the Huai River
did. But, hailstorms and droughts regularly struck her hometown
and frequent natural disasters only allowed her to harvest around
30 per cent of the crops from her four mu of farmland.
Damage to the fields would often have a long-term impact on
the next season’s planting and just like other farmers
in her village, Mrs. Zhao was unable to borrow money or food
from equally poor relatives and friends. So, going to the city
to work as a migrant worker was the only way to survive.
The life of a migrant worker is not easy. Mrs. Zhao’s
husband does the cleaning work for a property management company
and makes 600 RMB ($75 USD / €60) per month plus an extra
200 RMB from recycling garbage.
Her daughter lives in a small shed and guards bicycles in a
residential area, earning around 500 RMB per month, which works
out to be about two dollars per day.
Mrs. Zhao’s son was working on two of the construction
sites symbolic of Beijing’s promised wealth but did not
receive any pay due to the bad credit of the contractors and
is now looking for a job. Still, Mrs. Zhao considers herself
and her family to be lucky since many migrants wind up sweeping
the streets or reselling garbage for a living.
For her relatives, life in a treacherous and flood-prone region
like Anhui, is harsh. They used to regularly come to stay with
Mrs. Zhao before she left when seasonal floods would leave them
with no where to sleep.
For the rural poor, the flood season reads like an almanac of
hardship. If floods come and go in June, crop damage is likely
to leave farmers with very little to harvest.
If floods come and go in July, they can only plant green beans
and sesame, and might still wind up with only half a harvest.
If the floods come and go in August or even later, then the
families cannot do anything but wait for the next spring and
face an uncertain future of poverty and hunger in the village
or head to the city.
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At
58-years-old, Mrs. Zhao is an honest and hardworking woman
whose story is becoming increasingly common in China.
For the past 22 years, she has been working as a housekeeper
in Beijing. (p14301)
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Exceptionally
heavy flooding has forced millions of people to evacuate,
while the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) has been supporting
relief activities in 14 provinces over the past three
months. (p14302)
Thousands of farmers have seen their homes swept away
in minutes by the latest cycle of floods to strike Hunan
province. (p14304)
Most recently, the RCSC provided first aid, food, and
clothing to thousands of people affected by tropical storm
“Bilis,” which left 198 people dead during
the third week of July. (p14303)
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News
