Macau suffered 73 days of acid rain last year, according to official environmental statistics cited by The Macau Post Daily today.
Acid rain occurs when the pH value of rainwater is lower than 5.6.
Last year, the ultraviolet index stood at “low” to “moderate” on 335 days, two days less than in 2011.
Macau’s mean air temperature stood at 22.4 degree Celsius last year, a rise of 0.4 degree Celsius from the previous year.
Its mean relative humidity reached 80 percent, up four percentage points from 2011. The number of hours of sunshine fell 16.3 percent year-on-year to 1,545.3 last year.
Precipitation totalled 1,556 millimetres, up 14.1 percent year-on-year.
After the official release of data on fine suspended particulates was started in July last year, a total of 32 days were recorded last year when the observed value of fine suspended particulates – i.e. those of a diameter smaller than 2.5 microns – was higher than the reference standard.
Water consumption rose nine percent to 84.58 million cubic metres.
The volume of domestic rubbish (183,000 tonnes) and commercial waste (107,000 tonnes) rose 10.3 percent and 9.7 percent respectively. A total of 366,000 tonnes of solid refuse was incinerated while 2.42 million cubic metres of construction waste ended up in landfills, an increase of 49.6 percent.
The city’s waste water treatment plans treated 203,000 cubic metres of water per day, up 9.4 percent.
At the end of last year, Macau’s total land area stood at 29.9 km2, with a population density of around 19,000 per km2.
The peninsula covered 9.3 km2, Coloane 7.6 km2, Taipa 7.4 km2 and Cotai 5.6 km2. The total coastline amounted to 50.39 km.
Back in 1912, when measurements were first taken, Macau’s total land area stood at just 11.6 km2.
The total length of the city’s public roads stood at 417.4 km, while its motor vehicle density amounted to 521 vehicles per km2.(macaunews)
