China's South-North water diversion resettlement - in pictures

Schoolgirls and bathers near the foot of Danjiangkou dam, in Hebei. The project has included the construction of three vast channels, stretching south-to-north across the eastern, central and western parts of the country. This dam is the origin of the central leg, diverting water from the Danjiangkou reservoir on the Han River via new canals near the west edge of the Huanghuaihai Plain to flow through Henan and Hebei Provinces to Beijing – a diversion route totalling some 1,267km in length Photograph: Jonathan Watts/Guardian

The propaganda slogan on the concrete embankment below Danjiangkou reads 'Humanity and water in harmony: North and South both benefit' Photograph: Jonathan Watts/Guardian

Water levels at the Danjiangkou reservoir will be raised in 2014, flooding villages along the banks. Before then, the government is moving more than 300,000 people to new homes Photograph: Jonathan Watts/Guardian

A banner draped across a road near the Dashiqiao New Village resettlement area tells locals: 'Supporting the South-North Water Diversion is an unshakeable duty' Photograph: Jonathan Watts/Guardian

Rows of white-washed new homes line the road in Dashiqiao New Village, the new home of residents from Xichuan county in Henan which will be flooded when the diversion begins. The newcomers arrived last week and are mostly content with the residences Photograph: Jonathan Watts/Guardian

Smart red metal doors on a row of homes at Shuitianyang mask serious structural problems that have alarmed the migrants, who moved in earlier this summer Photograph: Jonathan Watts/Guardian

A villager in Shuitianyang shows the cracks that opened up soon after the migrants were relocated in June Photograph: Jonathan Watts/Guardian

Migrants gather on the collapsed living room floor of their newly built home in Shuitianyang Photograph: Jonathan Watts/Guardian

Villagers at Shuitianyang are alarmed at the shoddy construction of their new homes, but many accept that they have to move for the sake of the nation An elderly villager in Liangzhuandong New Village, which has experienced some of the worst transition problems. Photograph: Jonathan Watts/Guardian