Inner Harbor | Tidal barrier proposal secures ‘general support’ from Beijing
The Macau government received “general support” yesterday from the mainland’s State Council on a proposal for a cross-boundary flood control system that local authorities say could solve the flooding risk in the Inner Harbor area.
Chief Executive Chui Sai On traveled to Guangdong Province this weekend to meet provincial leaders and discuss the technical details for a shared flood control system, which is likely to include a tidal barrier.
The project was submitted to the mainland entity in March 2017. According to a statement from the Government Information Bureau (GCS), the approval in principle followed the State Council’s general flood control advice to local authorities.
The joint response – from the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Transport, the State Oceanic Administration and the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council – suggested the government conduct further research in a number of areas.
Among the research areas listed by Beijing are detailed plans for building the flood control system for Macau and nearby cities, the impact of such a proposal on ocean ecology and sand accretion, and the effect of potential oceanic disasters.
Local authorities are also being asked to prove whether it would be more effective to build a cross-
boundary flood control system or a further embankment in the Inner Harbor area, the GCS statement continued.
Macau’s Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau said that the local government is considering proceeding with both options, and has not ruled out other methods of flood control.
The MSAR government completed another project in 2015 to strengthen the area’s short-term flood control mechanisms.
It admitted in a statement yesterday that the project had been insufficient for the scale of flooding brought on by Typhoon Hato, the deadliest weather phenomenon to strike the city in half a century.
To prevent flooding on a similar scale in the future, the local government is pushing ahead with its tidal barrier proposal, while simultaneously increasing the height of the existing embankment system across the city. DB
