Canada Promotes Development Initiatives in Gansu Province, China

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien today announced three development initiatives related to clean water and underlined the launching of a poverty reduction project in the course of a visit to Lanzhou in Gansu Province, China.

"Our development assistance program is aimed at improving the lives of our fellow human beings, however distant they may be," said the Prime Minister. "Today in Gansu, Canadians are showing that they care about humanitarian issues such as overcoming poverty and ensuring access to clean water."

The three Canada Fund projects on Access to Clean Water were signed by Ambassador Howard Balloch.

Federal funding for these projects, through the Canadian International Development Agency, was provided for in the February 1998 budget and is, therefore, built into the existing fiscal framework.

PMO Press Office: (613) 957-5555

Canada Fund Projects on Access to Clean Water

Three new projects aimed at solving water problems will be funded by CIDA's Canada Fund for Local Initiatives. The projects will improve access to water by hardening household courtyards to act as rain catchment areas; constructing underground cisterns for each house for water storage; providing each recipient with training in household fruit tree or vegetable cultivation; and improving stock management or cultivation of edible fungus. The training will be provided according to the situation in a particular village and will take advantage of the additional water and time available to project recipients. The objectives of the training are to improve villagers' diets and to provide a small additional source of income.

Integrated Rural Development Poverty Reduction Project

The goal of this project is to support livelihood security in terms of food, basic health and nutrition and social well-being, and to increase Chinese capacity to address poverty alleviation. The targeted populations for the project are from selected "poverty counties" in the provinces of Ningxia, Gansu, Shanxi, and Guizhou.

The Gansu component focuses on two of the province's poorest counties, Hezheng and Jishishan in Lingxia Hui Prefecture, where food shortages are prevalent and child malnutrition evident. Project activities target those individuals and households whose food stocks and incomes are below the poverty line but who, nevertheless, have the potential to pull themselves out of poverty if given the opportunity.

The Mennonite Central Committee, a Winnipeg-based non-governmental organization, will contribute to and implement this initiative, which is partially funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The Chinese partner is the Amity Foundation, a locally-based non-governmental organisation.