Gov’t suspends crematorium project amid public criticism

IACM president José Tavares (center)

The government, through the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM), has decided to suspend the arrangements currently being made regarding the establishment of a crematorium at Taipa’s Sa Kong Municipal Cemetery.

“We asked the DSSOPT to suspend the project as the government needs to hear the population,” IACM president José Tavares said yesterday during a press conference. Given that there is no crematorium in Macau, the chief executive Chui Sai On said earlier that building one was a priority.

The project suspension comes after public criticism arose and several complaints from residents as well as neighborhood associations reached the IACM.

According to the IACM president, the process was badly conducted and there was “lack of communication and information to the public.”

Tavares recalled that the idea of building a crematorium facility in the region had been a request of many citizens in recent years and that it is related to both changes in the society and its cultural roots as well as the lack of space in the region. Such requests from the public led the institution to propose the creation of such a facility that would have been the first of its kind in Macau.

Nevertheless, the criticism from the population, and lack of information as to the surroundings of the location, led to a government backlash that especially escalated on social media networks, as Tavares admitted in yesterday’s press conference, with citizens criticizing the government and accusing them of “hiding” the project and the government’s intentions.

Responding to that matter, Tavares said, “the project was public and was inclusively part of the Policy Address from the Secretariat [for Transport and Public Works]. What happens is [that] without a suitable location and confirmation from the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau [DSSOPT] on that matter, we cannot even think about what kind of crematorium we want to build, what size, and how many burners we are going to have, etc.”

“What happens it that with the publication of the PCU [Urban Condition Plans] for that land plot, in order to collect opinions on the feasibility of the project, the population [has] got to know that this would be a possible location, and they [have] developed a suspicious feeling about it,” Tavares said, acknowledging that more information should have been provided before the controversy arose.

“This is a new thing, people don’t possess enough knowledge and so they [easily] express opinions against [a proposal]. We have a lot of work ahead of us in order to [disclose] the project and how the system works.”

Although assuming that the project has been called off, Tavares, as well as other members of other government departments present at the press conference, continued to reaffirm that the “project considered for Sa Kong [Cemetery] would be of great quality and the best of its kind, similar to what is used in Hong Kong,” rejecting the idea that any potential risk to public health could arise from it.

After this suspension, which postpones the project indefinitely, the spokesman responsible for IACM said that the only way out is to “review the law,” as the law in force only allows crematorium facilities to be located inside cemeteries.

“The first step now is to review the law in order to expand our possibilities and then to seek [together with the DSSOPT…] an alternative solution of a land plot in a more consensual way among the population,” Tavares said.

Until then, the project will be delayed for several years, a period in which “several things can happen, for example an epidemic outbreak or other,” he said, noting that in that case “both the government and the population must accept the consequences and the responsibility. It’s a risk we are taking.”
In the case of deaths caused by infectious disease, the international rules state that bodies should be cremated as a matter of priority, but the laws of mainland China do not allow human remains that are potentially dangerous to be transported into the country, causing a potential risk for public health.

Tavares elaborated: “The only possible solution is to bury them deeper after [disinfecting the remains], but we know that in cases like Ebola [and others], this is not enough to deactivate the virus.”
According to Tavares, the crematorium facility that was expected to be built would have been able to serve the needs of Macau’s population for a period of at least 50 years.

Questioned as to other options raised by entities during the last few days, and namely by the New Macau Association, which proposed last Friday that the government should explore additional ways of disposing of human body remains, giving the example of a process known as promession in which the bodies are subjected to a freezing process followed by a disintegration into fine particles, Tavares said, “such processes are not yet well known and not sufficiently studied, [which makes] them not popular [for the time being].”