WUHAN, Oct. 27 -- Like many displaced by the south-to-north water diversion project, Zhao Jiufu will never forget the day he moved out of his ancestral home four years ago.

"My mother was over 80 but despite my protests, she walked 5 kilometers on the craggy mountain roads to see me off," said Zhao, 59.

He was one of over 3,700 villagers who moved at least 500 km from Anyang township in Yunxian county of Shiyan City to a new town in Tuanfeng County of Huanggang, in central China's Hubei Province.

They were resettled in 2010 because their former homes were in the Danjiangkou Reservoir area that supplied water to Beijing, Tianjin and the northern provinces of Hebei and Henan in the country's ambitious project to divert Yangtze river water from the south to the arid north.

"Almost everyone cried when we got on buses and left that familiar land," said Zhao.

He struggled to keep back tears and said to himself, "Just go and do not look back."

A former village official in Yunxian County, Zhao and his family had the choice to move into his parents' home, which was beyond the relocation area, if they wanted to avoid moving far.

"But if I chose to stay, how could I persuade my fellow villagers to move away?" said Zhao.

He kept telling the villagers that the new town would promise a better future: city jobs, bigger homes and better schools for their children.

Their new life has been largely appealing and some of them have indeed found jobs that are more lucrative than farming. But Zhao felt particularly guilty when his father died last year -- he was too far away to take care of him.

When he visited his mother last month, she insisted he should bring a pack of earth and a bottle of water. "These are symbols of my bond with my hometown."

RESETTLED FOR WATER

In the coming days, water from Hanjiang River, the Yangtze's largest tributary, will be running out of Beijinger's taps through 1,400 kilometers of pipelines and canals.

The 210 billion yuan (34 billion U.S. dollars) project is a decades-old dream that dates back to Mao Zedong's days as leader.

In an effort to expand the Danjiangkou Reservoir on Hanjiang River, more than 340,000 people moved away from their homes between 2009 and 2012, including 180,000 in Hubei's Shiyan city, and more than 160,000 from Nanyang City, central Henan province.

Many people were also forced to give up jobs that were passed down from generation to generation.

Ye Mingcheng, 58, was forced to give up fishing earlier this year, after the government banned fishing in the reservoir to ensure water quality.

He was among at least 10,000 villagers in Danjiangkou City who were deprived of their livelihood.

Throughout his life, Ye has kept moving to make way for the reservoir. In 1968, when he was a teenager, his family moved about 200 km to Suixian County to make way for the Danjiangkou Reservoir. They came back in the 1970s, earning a living by raising fish in the reservoir.

Before the water diversion project was launched in 2012, Ye's family was forced to move again. But with fishing banned, he has yet to find a new job.

The government has built nearly 100,000 homes for the resettled residents in new communities in Hubei and Henan provinces. Their per capita living space has been increased by an average of 50 percent after the resettlement, said Li Hongzhong, secretary of Hubei provincial committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

But some residents were in debt and the compensation they received was not enough to cover the new home price.

A year after resettlement, Li Zongguo still has 50,000 yuan (8,174 U.S. dollars) of debt. At 59, he is in poor health and makes around 10,000 a year doing odd jobs at restaurants or construction sites. His only daughter, 20, only finished junior high school and works as a waitress.

Many new settlers have moved to big cities in search of better-paid jobs, leaving behind only children and elderly. In some new communities, entire sections are deserted as families become migrants.

Li Hongzhong said the local government in Hubei Province had worked out measures to help the resettled residents earn a living near their home.

Labor authorities in Shiyan city have provided vocational training for 630 resettled people over the past two years hoping to help them find jobs.

Some townships have also set up special funds and offered preferential policies for them to start up small businesses such as tailor shops, drugstores or car repairs services.

"But it still takes time for the new policies to take effect," said Zhang Xiaosong, an official of Houpo township, a new community for the resettled. "We also encourage the new settlers to take their advantages, such as grain or fruit farming, to increase income."