URUMQI, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 160,000 poverty-stricken villagers in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will be relocated to resettlement sites for poverty relief by 2019, according to local authorities.

The construction of 4,380 houses has been completed this year, which will accommodate a total of 19,117 poverty-stricken villagers, local authorities announced at a press conference Wednesday.

About 140,000 villagers in Xinjiang have moved to new houses built by the government in the past three years.

About 90 percent of the areas in southern Xinjiang including Hotan and Kashgar are deserts and cold mountainous areas at high elevation that suffer from water scarcity, desertification and other environmental problems.

"Poverty relief relocation is the most effective method of fighting poverty in southern Xinjiang," said Guo Wenyi, deputy head of the region's development and reform commission.

Xinjiang has also built 731.42 km of roads, 1,256.95 km of drinking water networks and 16 schools in the projects of poverty relief relocation.