Fishermen's floating homes on Honghu Lake on November 3. (Photo: Zhang Hui/GT)
There is nothing special about Wang Yunjun's home, a typical one-bedroom house with a kitchen, a washroom and a living room equipped with air-conditioning, except that his house is built on a converted boat in the middle of a lake, with the nearest land about one hour away via rowboat.
Wang's family started living on a boat when his grandfather, driven out of Jiangsu Province by famine, settled down on the Honghu Lake in Hubei Province in the 1950s.
There were about 1,500 families like Wang who have been living on the lake for generations. They earn a living by fishing and farming crabs. They discharge their sewage directly into the lake, a national nature reserve with a total area of 41,400 hectares.
Due to the waste discharged by the fishermen and over-fishing from villagers living on and along the lake, the local government has been taking a lot of measures to clean up the reserve in recent years, including dividing up the lake for aquaculture and relocating fishermen.
However, the restoration project is proving to be a challenge. Many fishermen like Wang are reluctant to move onto land, because they worry that they cannot afford the cost of living and fear they will have difficulty finding a new job due to their poor educational background.
Life on boat
"It feels good to have people visit us," Wang, 30, said to a group of reporters who stepped aboard his houseboat. His skin was dark and rough after years in the sun.
He and other fishermen live an isolated life. Other than going to nearby Honghu city to purchase groceries every two or three weeks, the fishermen almost have no contact with the outside world.
Wang and his family squeezed into a small, old boat with no windows, electricity or home appliances when he was young. He moved into his current houseboat when his father gave it to him as a wedding gift, after he married the daughter of another fisherman.
Most fishermen have built houses on their boats, and their boats are close to their crab and shrimp farms, allocated by the Honghu government.
Families usually have two boats, one for living in and the other for rowing between their house and the land.
"We can row our houseboat to visit other houseboats during holidays and celebrations. It's quite convenient," Wang said. "But rowing it all the way to a city is a big challenge." Wang's houseboat is filled with concrete ballast to withstand strong winds.
As there is no medical facility on the lake, some sick elderly fishermen have died on their way to the hospital in the city, Wang said.
He added that even for young people, rowing a boat on a windy dark night takes at least one and a half hour to reach the shore.
Barely making ends meet
Rich in natural resources, Honghu Lake has been a favorable place for aquaculture for decades.
Since the 1980s, aquaculture had grown rapidly, with many fishermen living on the lake and near the lakeshore setting up numerous nets to fish and raise crabs and shrimps, which greatly damaged the ecology of the lake, according to a press release from the Honghu government.
The disorderly aquaculture development led to depleted fishery resources, a sharp reduction of water birds and reduced water quality.
The Honghu authorities started to restore the ecosystem of the lake in 2005, which included removing fishing nets, introducing new aquatic plants and allocating about 1.33 hectares of water surface area to each fisherman's family, according to Shi Changhao, deputy head of the Honghu Wetland Bureau.
"We also relocated nearby factories that discharged pollutants into the lake and are making efforts to reduce the amount of pesticides and chemical fertilizers discharged directly," Shi told the Global Times.
The local government plans to have all the nets removed by the end of 2016.
According to Wang, many fishermen benefited from the ecological restoration project, especially from the improved water quality. However, the limited water area was not enough for many of them to earn a living.
Wang said that he could earn an annual income of up to 20,000 yuan ($3,144) by raising crabs in the designated water area.
About 90 percent of those fishermen owed money to either banks or their relatives, the Hubei Daily reported in February.
"I borrowed several times from relatives in my hometown in Jiangsu Province until they had no spare money to lend me," Wang said.
Uncertain future
In order to better protect the Honghu Lake reserve, the local government will eventually relocate all the fishermen from the lake, Shi said.
Many fishermen living along the lakeshore have already been relocated and resorted to other means of moneymaking, he said.
Zhu Zhangsheng, 53, who leads a folk performance group in the Lantian ecological park, a scenic spot around part of the Honghu Lake, said that he could earn more after he joined the performance.
The local government offered him the performance job along with several other fishermen after they were not allowed to set up nets for fishing in the early 2000s.
"I always love singing and acting. Besides performing in the park, I also farm," Zhu told the Global Times. The group of 10 villagers put on up to 10 performances to tourists during peak season, and they earn about 2,000 yuan per month.
Shi said that due to insufficient medical, education and transportation resources, many fishermen living on the lake look forward to life on land. Some of them have sent their children to schools at Honghu city, and prefer that their children stay in cities in the future, he said.
But fishermen not as talented as Zhu are worried about their future life on the land.
"I pay 1,100 yuan every month for boarding my two children studying in the city, and have to take care of my 60-year-old disabled sister and 80-year-old mother," Lu Jianyou, 45, told the Hubei Daily.
He said that leaving the lake means that he would lose all of his meager income.
"My life is poor as a fisherman, but I fear that I may be unable to find anything to do on land and cannot afford to buy an apartment even with a government subsidy," Wang said.
He only made it to grade two in a primary school when he dropped out, and more than half of the fishermen on the lake are illiterate elderly people.
Regarding concerns from fishermen, Shi said that the local authorities are discussing their needs with them, and the government would help them establish a cooperative to develop eco-fisheries, conduct vocational training and come up with policies to provide for elderly fishermen after the relocation.
