Macau’s air quality improved last year, with all monitoring stations recording a higher number of “good” air quality days compared with 2019, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) said in a statement about the city’s 2020 environmental statistics.
Moreover, the statement pointed out, the number of “poor” air quality days recorded at each station showed a “notable” drop. All monitoring stations registered no exceedance days for respirable suspended particulates (PM10) and fine suspended particulates (PM2.5) throughout the year, the statement said.
Meanwhile, water consumption was 85,515,000 cubic litres last year, down by 7.9 percent year-on-year. Water consumption by Macau’s households (42,816,000 cubic metres) increased by 9.4 percent year-on-year, while that by the business sector (37,115,000 cubic metres) and the public sector (5,584,000 cubic metres) decreased by 22.3 percent and 5.7 percent respectively. Macau’s waste water treatment plants treated an average of 208,508 cubic metres of waste water per day.
Macau’s annual mean air temperature last year dropped by 0.3 degree Celsius year-on-year to 23.3 degrees Celsius. Last year’s highest temperature was 35.5 degrees Celsius in July, down slightly by 0.2 degree Celsius from 2019; the lowest temperature was 6.7 degrees Celsius in December, a fall of 1.7 degrees Celsius.
Total precipitation decreased by 534.8 millimetres year-on-year to 1,713.2 millimetres.
Macau was affected by five tropical cyclones in 2020. The tropical cyclone signal No. 10 was hoisted when Typhoon Higos hit Macau and a maximum gust of 215.6 kilometres per hour and a maximum 10-minute average wind speed of 138.6 kilometres per hour were recorded.
Macau’s refuse incineration plant in Pac On treated a total of 437,592 tonnes of solid waste in 2020, a decrease of 19.8 percent year-on-year. Construction waste dumped in landfills totalled 3,974,000 cubic metres, up by 66.0 percent.
Macau’s land area stood at 32.9 square kilometres at the end of last year. Since the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) at the end of 1999, Macau’s land area has risen by 38.2 percent. In 1999, Macau’s land area amounted to 23.8 square kilometres, according to the Land Registry and Mapping Bureau (DSCC).
Macau’s population density went up from 20,400 persons per square kilometre in 2019 to 20,800 persons per square kilometre in 2020, one of the world’s highest population densities.
