In 2012 and 2013, Danjiangkou City authorities handled 1,012 petitions filed by 2,553 immigrants who complained about land loss, unemployment, housing quality and lack of infrastructure, to name but a few topics, according to a report published on the city's official website.

The report says Danjiangkou is under heavy pressure from increasing petitions, although it provides no comparable figures from the past and no information about immigrants appealing to provincial and central authorities for help.

To maintain stability, government officials have been sent to live and work in communities. In Danjiangkou City, more than 500 officials were placed in 165 resettlement villages to direct local economic development and handle complaints.

The solution to stabilize immigrants is to improve their living standards, officials have realized. The resettlement of those in the path of the rising water is just the first stage, says E Jingping, director of the South-North Water Diversion Office of the State Council, China's cabinet. "The key is to help them become prosperous."

However, improving the livelihood of tens of thousands of immigrants isn't easy for these cash-strapped cities, which are listed as the poorest places in China.

To start with, officials complain of a missed "golden opportunity" to develop the local economy. Parts of this area thrown into chaos by the water diversion scheme have been prevented from joining China's overall strong economic growth in the past decade.

In one case, to prepare for population resettlement and the water diversion project, the State Council called a halt to construction of Danjiangkou City's infrastructure in 2003.

Hundreds of factories were shut down, and many of them have been reluctant to build new sites because China's new anti-pollution measures mean they have to bear the extra costs of operating pollution control facilities. Also lacking skilled personnel, the city, listed as one of the country's poorest, finds it difficult to attract non-polluting industries.

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