Shanghai doomed by Three Gorges Dam?

In New Orleans, we have seen the devastation that can come from failing to heed scientific warnings. Will Shanghai be the victim of a similar stubborness regarding the Three Gorges Dam? Well, here's another warning:

To tell you the truth, I have tons of concerns. I am extremely worried about Shanghai, situated at the mouth of the Yangtze River. In my view, Shanghai is the place that will be most affected by the Three Gorges project, the cascade of dams being built on the upper Yangtze and the south-north water diversion project. All these colossal schemes will affect Shanghai in some way, and we really should be looking into that. Few people are taking seriously the potential combined impact on the city of all these projects.

During the Three Gorges feasibility study, Chinese scientists did look into how building the big dam would affect Shanghai, but I don't think they did enough on the issue. What worries and surprises me is that nobody is concerned about the issue any more, let alone doing any further studies.

That quote comes from Professor Chen Guojie, senior researcher at the Chengdu Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences. There is more, of course. And Shanghai, obviously, is not the only part of China affected by this dam project or the many others. "I find it frustrating to think that we will no longer have free-flowing rivers in China," Chen said. Read the entire interview here.