Ecology lobbyist opposes landfill off Coloane coast

A petition has been started by local environmental protection advocate Joe Chan against the government’s proposal to put a landfill off the southern coast of Coloane.

The proposal was raised by the government as the existing landfills for construction waste have become full.

In the description of the online petition, the advocate predicts the landfill will damage marine life, intensify water pollution, and risk the health of aquatic activities practitioners. More importantly, it will destroy the ecology of Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphins, he said. The dolphin is a national Tier-1 key protected animal.

Chan also criticized the government for not having provided any scientific data to support the “unique necessity” of the project, and no environmental assessments were produced. The public consultation period is only over 50 days , which he believes is too short for such an important issue.

Apart from opposing the project, he also suggests expanding the marine conservatory in that area.

When questioned by the press on the sidelines of an environmental event, Director for Environmental Protection Tam Wai Man said the landfill is needed because of constant development.

He was cited by local media All About Macau as saying that should Macau wants continuous development, land used for construction waste will be inevitable. He made assurances that the landfill will eventually become an ecological island and will not have any commercial or industrial development.

Tam also said that, despite Macau being authorized to oversee 85 sqm. of marine territories, not all can be used for landfill because space is needed for water transport channels, among other uses.

With the landfill planned for a location 1 km off the coast south of Coloane, Tam argued that there is a dolphin conservation reserve 8 km from the proposal landfill, hinting that he believed the dolphins will stay there.

Further, he cited previous assessments as proof that the main habitat of the dolphin is near the southern tip of the runway of the local airport.

He added that environmental and other assessments are underway.

In response to Tam’s comment, social media page Wildlife Diary of Macau criticized that fact that the only publicly available data on the dolphin’s main habitat is scarcely available in the evaluation conducted for the expansion project of the airport. Some data was even concealed.

Citing a local marine official who wondered if dolphins would reside in a human-designated area in the sea, the page questioned why two officials from the same government hold conflicting views on the same topic.

The page added that the dolphins should have freedom instead of being confined to a human-designated district.