Whenever newcomers to Macau ask me whether its safe to drink the water, I always give them an emphatic “Yes!” Why I feel pretty sure about this is that years ago I met a government official who, as a young engineer in the 70s, came out from Portugal to head the water department. He assured me that our water is “cleaner even than Hong Kong’s”, and then went on to describe the intricate process involved in getting water to our taps.
And apart from a little hiccup back about six or seven years ago when our water tasted for a few weeks distinctly salty (we understood that this was due to extreme high tides causing sea water to get in to our water source in China) and there was a panic rush on water at the supermarkets, I would have to agree that our water does seem of a very high quality.
However, the smelly business of waste water, and I specifically refer to the process of disposing of sewage, is a matter that I have less confidence in.
I jog in the early mornings along the waterfront cycle and running track in front of Ocean Gardens, and at the spot where the new light rail station is being built, my fellow joggers and I literally have to hold our breath to avoid breathing in extremely noxious sewage smells. It is quite apparent that untreated sewage is being allowed to flow out from a source somewhere adjacent to the Ocean Gardens complex and into the narrow strip of water between Taipa and HengQin island. I’d dearly love to find a chemistry student at the university to bring a test kit, hop over the wall and down to the water’s edge and test the murky brown liquid that’s belching out. It’s a scandal in this day and age of hygiene consciousness; how can this be allowed to happen?
Last month, as I was setting off for my jog at the ungodly hour of 6am, at the start of the track was a very smart display of diagrams and text on ‘Plano Director Dos Novos Aterros’ – basically a consultation of the general public on the proposed land reclamation on Macau-side, and in Taipa, 4 ‘clumps’ of land stretching in front of Ocean Gardens and Island Park, past the Amizade ‘Friendship’ Bridge and towards the long awaited new ferry terminal.
What has this got to do with sewage you may ask? Well, two of the ‘clumps’ remind me very much of the reclamation projects off the coast of Dubai called The Palm. An ambitious and exciting project for sure, and it lured numerous well heeled property investors and film stars to buy there.
But oh dear, no one seemed to have factored in the water between the ‘fronds’ of the palm, which even though part of the tidal Gulf, lingers, stagnant and foul smelling.
Back to our own planned reclamation. Lets hope sincerely that this will not happen to us. Sad though it is to be eroding our lovely Macau-Taipa harbour with yet more silt and buildings, I’m resigned to the march of ‘progress’. But from what I can see in the consultation drawings, the thin strip of water between the coast and the ‘clumps’ could, I fear, in spite of the tide, become trapped and more insidious stagnant smells will emanate to the surrounding inhabitants.
I’m no ‘tree hugger’. But if the authorities are allowing raw sewage to be piped out to our waterways close to parks and children’s’ play areas, I’m seriously concerned about the lack of care being given to our marine environment today.
