Association criticizes Macau’s environment evaluation policies

Lei U Tou, vice-president of Choi In Tong Sam Association, declared that Macau’s environmental measures are lagging far behind the rest of the world, further criticizing the fact that “regardless of how serious the pollution levels are, they never exceed the imposed standard requirements,” according to a report by Jornal Cheng Pou.
In Lei’s words, just by collecting samples of random measurements that indicate a reduction of a project’s potential pollution, all environment evaluation reports get a pass, and all projects are easily approved for construction.
Currently, Macau does not enforce detailed environmental standards and regulations. The Environment Protection Bureau (DSPA) has not yet elaborated a schedule describing the laws behind environment evaluation policies.
“The lack of regulations concerning environment evaluation policies is where Macau lags behind its peers,” said Lei, exemplifying the many countries in the world where there is, besides an established legal criteria regarding air and sound pollution levels, an established public consultation scheme.
In Macau, the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT) is authorized to order contractors to submit their projects’ environment evaluation reports. However, according to the Jornal Cheng Pou report, some contractors noted that these reports are just “additional administrative requirements,” as no laws force contractors to submit them to the responsible authorities. Contractors can appeal to the administrative court in order to refuse delivering the reports.
Lei recommended that authorities include a few articles in the local legal regulations in order to allow the DSSOPT to legally require contractors to deliver and publish the reports, and also to allow the DSSOPT to forward the reports to the DSPA for approval.