26 April 2008
Resttlements in Ngaba
(Xinhua) He Wentao, official of the Commission for Development and Reform in Ngaba Tibetan and Autonomous Qiang prefecture (Chin: Aba), announced that until 2013 about 77,000 residents, or 17,067 households, most of them Tibetans, will be resettled in an attempt to eradicate the endemic Kashin-Beck disease. In the prefecture, 41,184 people are said to be affected by the incurable bone disease which destroys the joints of the patients. The costs of the resettlement program are given as 1.1 billion yuan (UK£80.8m; EUR€102.2m; US$157.4m). New homes for the resettled families are under construction. The program aims at reducing the rate of new contaminations from the current 20% to 5% within 10 years.