Bittersweet harvest

How orange growers sacrificed income to help make Hong Kong's water safe, Aybek Askhar reports from Xunwu, Jiangxi.

In 2012, orange grower Huang Zhiwen was angry when he learned the local government had issued an order for the removal of all the orchards around a nearby reservoir, including his citrus trees.

Born and raised in the small village of Sanbiao in Xunwu county, Jiangxi province, the 49-year-old had taken care of the citrus trees for almost 20 years.

"They became my 'money tree' after the first harvest. How could I just say 'yes' when they told me to chop down all the trees?" he said.

His orchard, with more than 1,000 orange trees, earned nearly 10,000 yuan ($1,420) a year, and was the family's main source of income.

"After October was the harvest season for my navel oranges, and I usually collected almost 500 kilograms of ripe oranges. After the fruit was turned into cash, you could hardly imagine how happy it made a grower like me, who used to be very poor," Huang said.