The cover story published on last week's Southern Weekend, a Guangzhou-based weekly newspaper, revealed that a proposed reservoir project could threaten an age-old engineering marvel in Sichuan.

Under terms of the project, a 23-meter-high, 1,200-meter-long dam will span the Minjiang River at a site only about 1,300 meters upstream of core areas of the Dujiangyan irrigation and flood-control system. One of the oldest man-made engineering projects in the world, the waterworks network has been recognized as a world heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The proposed dam project risks damaging both the waterworks' beauty and the ability for the piping in place to function as an effective irrigation and flood-control system.

Though many scholars and experts learned the risks involved and have opposed the controversial project, there is still the danger that the proposed dam might go through assessments and be launched soon.

Obvious mechanical shortcomings still exist in the decision-making process related to the country's key development projects.

It seemed reasonable that scholars and experts have been invited to attend assessment meetings by the developers to take part in discussions on the matter.

But the fact is that when there were too many dissenting voices, the developers would always hold another assessment meeting, without inviting those who had expressed opposition. After the deliberate selection, assessment then becomes a mere formality.

As a result, it might easily happen that a department or an industry overlooks the long-term interests of the nation and the public to pursue short-term interests of its own.

To assure that all of our key development projects are in keeping with the long-term interests of the nation and can be truly sustainable, an independent assessment mechanism must be established.

Experts from the State Environmental Protection Administration, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the Construction Ministry announced yesterday that the dam project would have negative effect upon the ancient waterworks.

We hope that their advice will be followed so that Dujiangyan will remain a living engineering marvel.

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