As exporting human bodies for cremation is legally infeasible, lawmaker Ron Lam is calling on the government to reveal its roadmap for building a crematorium.
His inquiry came not long after the government announced its Master Contingency Plan against a potential Covid-19 outbreak. The Master Plan pointed out that the bodies of people who died with infectious diseases are not supposed to be exported, even for cremation.
Previously, bodies were moved to and cremated in Zhuhai.
However, since May 2017, the mainland has blocked the import of bodies confirmed to be, or suspected of, carrying infectious diseases.
With this said, without such a facility in Macau, the government has not clearly elaborated upon how bodies would be handled should there be an outbreak with excessive fatalities.
In contrast, the Master Plan only stipulates that, should there be an outbreak that causes fatalities, the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) and the Health Bureau (SSM), among other government entities, will take the lead in handling bodies.
As such, the lawmaker asked the government to present a clearer picture to the public on how it would handle the matter under the framework of the Master Plan. He also asked whether the government has any prospective locations in mind, and asked whether the government would outline requirements for a crematorium in terms of environmental and psychological factors.
In fact, alternative flameless methods, such as water and ice cremation, which are purported to be more environmentally friendly, have drawn much attention in many parts of the world.
Lam is not the first lawmaker to push for the roadmap.
Former lawmaker Agnes Lam raised the same question with IAM in 2020, when the city was still under early-phase lockdown as Covid-19 was sweeping through the world.
Despite opposing the proposal regarding the same facility in June 2018 on the grounds of the government’s manner of presentation of the plan, maintenance costs, location, as well as demands, the former lawmaker voiced concerns about the lack of progress regarding the facility in June, two years later, in light of the city being prone to death of or with Covid-19.
The reason why the former lawmaker requested more discussion on the facility in 2018 was that she found the government was not making sufficient disclosure on its roadmap as it then was.
On the occasion in 2020, she asked the government about the matter, to which a then IAM official replied, “It can’t be rushed.” Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Elsie Ao Ieong, also admitted to the need for the facility in Macau.
The government lifted, in year 2019, the requirement that crematoria must be located within a cemetery, considering the lack of appropriate locations in Macau.
