Community renovation lifts people's well-being

In Yanping district under the prefecture-level city of Nanping in Fujian province, Zheng Jianhua was beaming with happiness in his renovated residential community at the former Nanping textile factory.

Speaking of the residential community at the factory — known as Nanfang locally — which was built in the 1970s, he said: "Our old community is changing day by day, and it is great! We elderly folk can now spend our sunset years here in comfort."

The Nanfang Residential Area in Dafeng Community comprises six residential complexes with more than 1,100 households. Zheng lives in the fourth complex.

Due to geological hazards and aging buildings, there were significant safety risks in the whole residential area, and a growing call for community renovation and relocation, he said.

Taking heed, the municipal and district Party committees and governments arranged over 8 million yuan ($1.12 million) of central special funds to Nanfang Residential Area from December 2021, renovating the area, starting from the second, third and sixth complexes.

As a State-owned enterprise, Nanping Green Development Group was assigned the upgrade work on the fourth complex, and it formed a special service team to provide effective assistance.

Besides answering the major concerns of residents regarding renovation, the service team also helped beautify the environment — cleaning up "small advertisements" on walls, weeds in the green belts, dead branches, as well as sanitary dead spots.

Zhang Wenliang, deputy team leader, said they organized safety inspections of the buildings, finding seven houses with severe safety hazards and 16 places in urgent need of repair.

The third batch of renovation work, targeting the first, fourth and fifth residential complexes, started early this year with an investment of more than 5 million yuan.

Zhang said following the principle of "handover upon completion," Nanping Green Development Group has completed the renovation of 36 resettlement houses in the fourth residential complex, letting residents move into bright new resettlement homes gradually.

Zhang said the planned renovation projects include sewage pipe network transformation, road widening and hardening, corridor lighting, community landscape beautification and fire safety improvements.

Resident Xu Xiangui said: "This resettlement area renovation has really solved big problems for us. It used to be dirty and messy, but now everything is clean and convenient."