Zhang Jiyao, director of the water-diversion
office of the State Council, has vowed that
the spigots feeding the eastern route will be
shut during dry seasons. Project engineershave set the cutoff at flows of less than 8000
cubic meters per second at the Datong
hydrological station on the lower Yangtze,
some 600 kilometers upriver of the estuary.
Chen, however, argues that the threshold
should be at least 50% higher, considering
the heavy demand for water by industry and
agriculture along the lower Yangtze. He has
urged planners to build a facility to gather
runoff and water-quality data in the estuary.
However, Chen says, “I have seen no effort
to collect these data and integrate them into
water-diversion decisions.”