After months of negative publicity about the true ecological credentials of the proposed Dongtan Eco City, China Daily today published an article suggesting that the project has hit tricky ground.
As we reported back in
January, the architectural profession has long been suspicious of the
potential marketing value, rather the environmental sensitivity, of
Dongtan, slated to be built on wetland areas of Chongming Island near
Shanghai. Now, Chinese state media admits that "doubts rise over
economics of ecological city," adding that "the project has been marred
by delays and faces rising doubts over whether it will be a model for
China's rapid urbanization, or just a posh community for wealthy commuters eager to flee the smog and traffic of Shanghai."
"The so-called zero-emission city is pure commercial hype," the China
Daily quotes Dai Xingyi, a professor at the Department of Environmental
Science and Engineering at Shanghai's Fudan University. "True
'zero-emissions' comes with a big price tag. I doubt anyone would be willing to pay for it," Dai adds.
The Dongtan project - which has been co-designed by British engineering
consultancy Arup, and has been strongly endorsed by both former and
current British Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - has been
promoted as a benchmark for sustainable Chinese urbanisation. Occupying
a 30 sq km site on Chongming Island, it is slated to be completed in
stages by 2015. Construction, however, has been repeatedly delayed, and
the first phase of the project, now slated to start in 2009, has been
considerably slimmed down in projected scale.
Last update : Friday, 25 July 2008
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