Environment | Only half of wastewater discharge receives secondary treatment

The Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) has said that about half of Macau’s residual water is only receiving primary treatment at the water sewage treatment plant at the Macau Peninsula before being discharged.

According to the DSPA director, Raymond Tam, the city’s economic development has led to an increase in the wastewater that needs to be treated at the facility, thus failing to treat the rest of the residual waters.

The remaining half of the residual waters, which is about 147,000 cubic meters, undergoes secondary treatment.

On Tuesday this week, Tam spoke about the conditions of the local coastal waters and residual water treatment.

According to an industry expert who asked not to be identified, the primary treatment is removing a fraction of the pollution, leaving the waters still severely polluted, as pollutants such as oil and grease are not removed.

“This just means that there are tons of polluted waste. […] The government [has done] nothing for 25 years and is still doing nothing. They’re talking about it as if this is not their responsibility and that they have nothing to do with it,” the industry expert told the Times.

Although there are currently five wastewater treatment facilities in the SAR, with each of them designed for a maximum treatment of 356,000 cubic meters of wastewater per day, the industry expert considered the treatment to be almost useless, as no major pollutants are removed. 

The expert implied that the city’s standards on sewage treatment fall short when compared with international standards.

“If only half of the waters undergo primary treatment, then what is the treatment like for the other half?” said the expert.

Tam said during the press conference that a new water treatment facility is expected to start operating in Seac Pai Van next year. He added that the Taipa water treatment plant facilities and technology are in the process of undergoing improvement.

The industry expert believes that without an improvement to the treatment facilities and methods, the wastewater coming out of these plants will always be as bad as it went in.

The expert stressed that a very high percentage of untreated wastewater is being dumped on the Macau coastline, disrupting the entire maritime ecosystem, among other problems. The expert stressed that untreated sewage will continue to remain one of the city’s major environmental issues.  LV