Fengshan village strives to shake off poverty

The poor village of Mouai in Pingle Yao town, Fengshan county, Hechi, has made progress in poverty alleviation by implementing a set of preferential policies and building a number of livelihood projects.

Mouai village has 3,605 people in 866 households. Of these, 821 people in 204 households were under the poverty line, with a poverty incidence rate of 34.4 percent.

In the four years since Fengshan county government implemented its road construction index, in 2016, the village has built 26 roads over a distance of 25 kilometers.

In 2018, relevant departments gave policy support and financial assistance to the village, and invested 473,000 yuan ($66,671.52) to build a centralized water supply project in order to solve the problem of drinking water for 181 people in 36 households in the village.

A total 3.8 million yuan was invested to build educational infrastructure such as a primary school teaching block to meet the schooling needs of 693 school-age children in the village's compulsory education system. Students from poor families are all eligible for education subsidies.

All villagers in Mouai have basic medical insurance, and standardized village-level clinics equipped with two doctors, 70 varieties of medicines and a range of necessary medical equipment have been established.

About 3.5 million yuan was invested to build 77 water cabinets holding 4,620 cubic meters of water, and six new centralized water supply facilities, ensuring all households in the village have safe drinking water.

In terms of stable housing, 2.1 million yuan was invested to renovate 56 dilapidated houses and install 33 new toilets.

As a fundamental part of alleviating poverty, the development of industry is also a priority. Since 2016, Mouai village has selected camellia, walnuts, chicken and octagonal as its specialty industries, covering 844 households, including 204 poverty-stricken households.

At the end of 2019, the incidences of poverty in the village fell to 2.94 percent.