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March 30, 2017

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Putuo cracking down on riverboat eyesore

PUTUO District government has begun demolishing unlicensed boats converted into floating houses for out-of-towners.

Officials said yesterday that more than 60 boats, most of them too damaged to be able to sail, were berthed along Xinchapu River near the border of Putuo and Baoshan districts.

More than 200 people are living on the boats, causing safety risks and polluting the river and surrounding environment, according to Putuo government officials. They added that the boat dwellers had discharged sewage into the river and raised fowl on the riverbanks. Nearby villagers were paid to supply power and water to the boats, littering the area with electric wires and water pipelines.

The construction management commission of the district aimed to remove the illegal settlements within a month and clean the polluted river, said Peng Bo, director of the commission.

The residents will be asked to leave and find a legal place to live beforehand. If they have nowhere to live, they can seek help at nearby rescue stations, an official with Putuo District Rescue Station said. “The station can also send them back to their hometowns if they prefer,” she told Shanghai Daily.

“The boats are our home and entire properties. We have no elsewhere to go,” one of the settlers said. She and her family have lived on the river for five years.

The law enforcement team with Shanghai Water Authority has issued notices to the residents asking them to leave, the authority said. Taopu Township government has begun demolishing illegal constructions built on the riverbank.

The commission plans to launch a joint crackdown with the police authority to remove the remaining boats from the river, according to Peng, who described the area as a “tough bone” for the authority.

The floating settlement has been on the river for over five years but until now had survived because it is sited at the jurisdiction border of two districts. Fifty-two boats are in Putuo, the rest are in Baoshan District.

The authority began taking effective measures against the illegal settlements after the head of Putuoi’s Taopu Town was named as Xinchapu River Chief.

Shanghai has started a river chief system, aiming at cleaning up all polluted rivers and other waterways this year.




 

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