On July 5, a dike breach occurred on the first-line embankment of Dongting Lake in Tuanzhou Polder, Huarong County, forcing the evacuation of 7,680 affected residents from 6 villages and 1 community in Tuanzhou Township. How is the resettlement work progressing? How are the affected residents resuming production and work after the water receded? How are the recovery and reconstruction efforts being carried out?

　　On September 1, 2024, the News Investigation team arrived in Tuanzhou Township. Sixty-two days had passed since the dike breach. Tuanzhou Middle School, where the reporters arrived, was one of two temporary resettlement sites for affected residents after their return home. Most of those still living here are households whose homes have collapsed or are dilapidated, along with a few villagers who, due to special circumstances, are temporarily unable to return home.

　　After the breach was sealed, the local authorities began round-the-clock pumping and drainage work. As soon as their homes emerged from the water, a third-party housing appraisal company commissioned by the Huarong County Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau moved in to conduct a comprehensive appraisal of all water-affected houses in Tuanzhou Township. The 4,451 residential buildings in Tuanzhou Polder were classified into five grades: A, B, C, D, and collapsed. At the site, reporters could clearly see on the exterior wall of each house the appraisal conclusion label. Houses marked "preliminarily appraised as safe" and "main structure safe" were rated Grade A or B, meaning they are safe for residents to return and live in. Those clearly cordoned off with warning tape and bearing red warning signs reading "Dangerous Building, Do Not Approach" were appraised as Grade C and Grade D dilapidated houses, which residents must not approach.

　　For affected families whose homes are temporarily uninhabitable, the post-disaster reconstruction command center offered two transitional resettlement options. For permanent residents willing to arrange their own housing, the government provides monetary compensation of 600 yuan per person per month for a period of three months. For those unable to arrange their own housing, government-established centralized resettlement sites can guarantee accommodation at any time; with food and lodging provided free of charge, no additional subsidy is given.

　　As villagers returned home one after another, the Tuanzhou Middle School resettlement site was closed on September 14, and the remaining villagers were consolidated into the Tuanzhou Township Nursing Home resettlement site. Currently, this is the only remaining resettlement site in Tuanzhou Township, still housing 73 villagers. What is the living situation of those villagers who have returned home one after another?

　　Tuanzhou Township has six villages. Due to differences in elevation, the government, in accordance with the receding water conditions, organized villagers' orderly return home in batches by village. Villagers of Tuanxi Village, situated at the highest elevation, were the first to return home on August 8, while those notified last were Tuanhua Village and Tuanbei Village, the lowest-lying villages in the township.

　　Shen Qiang, who lives in Tuanhua Village, is a large-scale agricultural producer in Tuanzhou Township. He and his family did not return home to live until August 22.

　　Shen Qiang said his entire home had been submerged for about ten days, and all the furniture was ruined. The only item that was cleaned and salvaged was a Simmons mattress. He and his wife temporarily stacked bricks to make a bed to sleep on, and with a newly installed air conditioner, this extremely rudimentary room became their temporary "home" in the scorching heat.

　　Shen Qiang told reporters that before each household among the permanent residents of Tuanzhou Polder returned home, the government distributed a set of basic living supplies to them. At the doorways of many houses, reporters could see a checklist titled "Eight Things for Affected Residents Returning Home." Items 6, 7, and 8 on the list specify, respectively, the "living supplies," "daily necessities," and "toiletries" that the Civil Affairs Bureau is responsible for distributing to each household.

　　This lush green rice field is the first plot of land in Tuanzhou Township to be recultivated after the disaster. July is a critical period for crop rotation in agricultural planting. After the disaster struck, under the guidance of experts at the provincial and municipal levels, the basic principles for agricultural recultivation in Tuanzhou Polder were set as "follow the farming season, prioritize grain and oil crops, proceed according to actual conditions, and achieve full coverage."

　　In the end, 3,657 mu were planted in a rush over nine days. The rice has already begun to head, and the fragrance of the rice has attracted egrets. The first phase of the agricultural campaign achieved a phased victory.

　　After the rush planting of rice was completed, villagers also began returning home one after another. The agricultural department stepped back into a technical guidance role, returning the right to tend the rice fields to the farmers themselves. The second phase of the agricultural campaign followed. A large amount of cultivated land needs to be converted to other crops or replanted. Which crop varieties are currently suitable for rush planting? How can agricultural production be restored in line with local conditions?

　　For ordinary people, their greater concern is whether they can grow crops like mustard and rapeseed, varieties they are unfamiliar with. But for the agricultural department, the smooth operation of the entire agricultural production chain must be considered: not only must farmers' start-up funds be resolved, but technical guidance must also be provided so that everyone can grow the crops, while also ensuring the produce can be sold. A large amount of preliminary verification and planning work has long been under way in an orderly manner.

　　To boost farmers' enthusiasm for planting, Huarong County specially formulated the "Tuanzhou Township 2024 Rapeseed Production Work Plan," which explicitly proposes a preferential scheme of "two frees and two subsidies": providing villagers with free high-quality seeds and free intelligent mechanical sowing; subsidizing land plowing costs at 50 yuan per mu; and subsidizing field management and the purchase of pesticides and fertilizers at 50 yuan per mu. Local agricultural technical backbones assist everyone in scientific planting, and crop buyback price-guarantee agreements are signed.

　　Shen Qiang told reporters that on the second day after the dike breach, he received 110,000 yuan in rice insurance compensation from the insurance company for 200 mu, and subsequently received another 55,000 yuan. On September 4, the day after we met him, he began receiving agricultural subsidies of 14,000 yuan in installments. Because the funds were gradually arriving and the policies were becoming clearer, he planned to start recultivation work the next day.

　　The most thorny issue in Tuanzhou Township's agricultural campaign at present is how to finalize the compensation and production-resumption plans for aquaculture farmers as quickly as possible.

　　Aquaculture is the agricultural sector that suffered the most severe economic losses in this dike breach in Tuanzhou Polder. Because sea bass farming has high costs and high returns, it is often impossible to purchase agricultural insurance; once an accident occurs, it deals a heavy blow to farmers. Why is it that more than two months later, only aquaculture farmers have received no start-up compensation funds or compensation plan?

　　Tuanzhou Township has a total aquaculture area of 5,000 mu. Which farmers raise high-economic-value fish? Which raise other fish of lower economic value? What is the stocking density per mu of fish ponds? Before the disaster, the government did not have detailed information on these matters. To ensure the fairness and impartiality of subsidy payments, the Huarong County government launched comprehensive disaster survey and verification work for aquaculture farmers, and therefore was unable to provide compensation standards for farmers within a short period.

　　As of September 4, aquaculture farmers in Tuanzhou Township had received the first advance payment of natural disaster relief funds from the government: 2,000 yuan per mu for those who previously raised valuable fish species such as sea bass, yellow catfish, and mandarin fish, and 1,000 yuan per mu for those who previously raised common species such as the four major Chinese carps and crucian carp. A more detailed compensation plan is still in the process of being issued.

　　The 2,000 mu of farmland near the breach site suffered damage to the cultivated soil layer due to multiple factors, including the strong impact of water flow. On September 9, when the reporters left Tuanzhou Township, the Huarong County Agriculture Bureau had already dispatched excavators to help residents restore the farmland, striving to restore post-disaster agricultural production order within as short a time as possible.