Macau Matters | Water Woes

Richard Whitfield

Here in Macau we have very inexpensive and very plentiful water, even if the quality is not so good – too many chemicals added to condition the water. But, in China and other parts of the world, water is becoming an increasingly scarce and precious resource.
Just considering China, it is well known that the country overall faces increasing water shortages. With development and urbanisation comes increasing water consumption for agriculture and domestic use. Also, there is increasing water wastage because rainwater run-off from roads and other structures is channelled into storm-water drainage systems and vented to sea. To counter these problems China is  starting to implement major water redirection systems to pump freshwater northwards for hundred, if not thousands, of kilometres. Additionally, I recently read that China is developing a market based auction system to sell water usage rights to increase the efficiency of water usage.
Several years ago I was involved in the design of a university campus in Macau and I commissioned a study to see how we could make better use of our water. The analysis showed that by storing and processing rain water on campus we could be largely self-sufficient in our water consumption. Moreover, we found that there was a natural artesian fresh water storage reservoir underneath the campus that we could use to store the rain water. Then the whole plan fell apart because (1) municipal water is so cheap that the payback period for the system would be 25+ years,  (2) I could not find any nearby laboratories capable of evaluating the capacity of the artesian reservoir, and (3) local engineers and architects strongly resisted adopting this approach because of their (totally unfounded) fears that it would not work.
One of my pet hates is the very insular and fearful nature of the local architectural and construction industry, and I have complained about it several times in the past concerning several issues. I can slightly sympathise with their desire to minimize risk in commercial construction by sticking with familiar and “safe” methods and approaches. But this is not the way that you develop creative and innovative industries. There is a lot of international level construction done in Macau but I am not aware of any instances where this expertise has been “exported” via consulting services to become part of a stronger and more diversified Macau economy.
One easy way that the Macau government can encourage such industry diversification is to be much more adventurous and innovative in the way that it designs and constructs public buildings and infrastructure. A wonderful opportunity to have 21st century buildings and technology in the University of Macau’s new Hengqin Island campus was totally wasted, for example.
Going back to water, I understand that The Venetian has implemented some rain water storage and is using the water for its gardens, but they are not publicising it much. I doubt whether many of the other large water consumers in Macau are doing anything similar because of the artificially low local water prices. I also do not see modern low-flow shower nozzles in wide use in Macau, for instance.
Another initiative that the Macau government could take is to significantly raise the price of water and then use the resulting income to subsidise the introduction and use of various water saving technologies in Macau. In this way Macau could build up strong expertise in this field which could be “exported” to provide consulting advice and products to China and other places that face increasing water shortages. It would also show solidarity with our compatriots across the border.