With the sea off Hac Sa Beach about to be rezoned as a waste disposal area, the head of Macao’s Environmental Protection Bureau (known by its Portuguese initials DSPA) has attempted to clarify what this move means for the ocean’s ecosystem, including a local population of rare dolphins, TDM reports.
DSPA director Raymond Tam said that building an “ecological island” – as the government has termed the project – out of construction waste was not the same as using the ocean as a rubbish pit.
“We will not dump some solid waste into the sea as rumoured,” he told the broadcaster. Tam explained that the island would be built on a properly constructed dyke, and that any refuse used for the in-fill would first be screened to ensure it met national reclamation standards.
[See more: ‘Ecological island’ of construction waste gets cautious approval from civic groups]
Regarding concerns the public had voiced about the island’s impact on endangered Chinese white dolphins, Tam cited a previous environmental assessment that found its proposed location was not a place dolphins frequently visited. They preferred the sea at the southern end of Macao’s airport runway (about three kilometres north of Hac Sa), Tam said, noting that the proposed location was eight kilometres outside of the dolphins’ main habitat in the Pearl River Estuary.
Tam told TDM that his bureau was currently conducting further studies on the impact an artificial island would have on the environment, maritime navigation and water conservancy. He said the assessment was set to be completed this year and would then be submitted to the central government for review.
The island has been proposed as a stop-gap solution for the disposal of construction waste, as Macao’s landfill in Coloane is near capacity. According to its consultation document, the island would eventually be transformed into a “multifunctional public space” and “urban green lung.”
