The government has announced that the unit price of reclaimed water*, the generation and supply of which is scheduled to start on March 1, will be 15 percent lower than that of tap water.
Coloane’s sprawling Seac Pai Van public housing neighbourhood and the University of Macau (UM) campus will be the first two areas in Macau to where reclaimed water will be supplied.
The Seac Pai Van public housing neighbourhood comprises one social rental housing estate and three subsidised home-ownership scheme (HOS) estates.
The UM’s current campus is situated in a one-square-kilometre area of Zhuhai City’s Hengqin island that is under the Macau Special Administrative Region’s (MSAR) direct jurisdiction, i.e., Macau’s laws and regulations fully apply there.
Water reclamation, aka wastewater reuse or water recycling, is the process of converting municipal wastewater (sewage) into water that can be reused for a variety of purposes, such as toilet flushing, landscape irrigation, street cleaning, vehicle washing, and fire protection. Such water is known as reclaimed water.
The use of reclaimed water aims to save tap water consumption.
Reclaimed water in Macau will be used for two purposes first after its upcoming launch on March 1, namely toilet flushing and landscape irrigation. In the future, the government will study the feasibility of extending the use of reclaimed water to more non-potable purposes.
The Marine and Water Bureau (DSAMA) has recently launched a community promotional campaign concerning the use of reclaimed water for Seac Pai Van public housing households and the UM. The bureau has set up a reclaimed water information booth in a sitting-out area at the Seac Pai Van public housing neighbourhood and in a building on the UM campus, with a ceremony held in the sitting-out area on Saturday marking the two information booths’ setting-up.
DSAMA Director Susana Wong Soi Man revealed the unit price of reclaimed water while speaking to reporters after Saturday’s ceremony.
The upcoming reclaimed water will be generated and supplied by the Coloane Reclaimed Water Station, the city’s first treatment plant for wastewater reuse.
The station is located next to the Coloane Wastewater Treatment Plant near Concórdia Industrial Park. Construction of the station’s first phase started in October 2024 and is now scheduled to be fully completed by the end of this month. The station will convert specially treated sewage supplied from its adjacent Coloane Wastewater Treatment Plant into reclaimed water.
The first phase of the Coloane Reclaimed Water Station, according to the DSAMA dedicated website on reclaimed water, will be able to generate up to 2,500 cubic metres of reclaimed water per day, which will be delivered to the Seac Pai Van public housing neighbourhood and the UM campus from March 1 this year.
These two areas are both equipped with dual-pipe systems, which were set up when they were built, where bathrooms and toilets are connected with normal pipes carrying tap water and purple pipes for carrying reclaimed water. Currently, still without the generation of reclaimed water in Macau, the two areas’ purple pipes used for toilet flushing are carrying tap water. On March 1, the purple pipes will start carrying reclaimed water supplied from the Coloane Reclaimed Water Station.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Wong said that construction of the first phase of the Coloane Reclaimed Water Station has basically been completed where its equipment is now undergoing final testing for upcoming operational start.
Wong also said that her bureau will start later this year the designs for its two projects to build the second phase of the Coloane Reclaimed Water Station and to build a reclaimed water station on the man-made island where the Macau checkpoint of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) is located.
Construction of a new wastewater treatment plant, to be located on the HZMB man-made island, got off the ground in September last year and is scheduled to be completed in December 2030, according to the website of the Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA), which oversees the operations of the city’s wastewater treatment plants. Specially treated sewage from the new wastewater treatment plant on the HZMB man-made island will be supplied to the future DSAMA reclaimed water station there.
The Environmental Protection Bureau also launched a project last year to upgrade the current Coloane Wastewater Treatment Plant. After the upgrading, the plant will supply specially treated sewage to the future second phase of the Coloane Reclaimed Water Station.
Wong said on Saturday that the Coloane Reclaimed Water Station’s second phase and the HZMB reclaimed water station are both expected to start operating in 2030 at the earliest.
The Coloane Reclaimed Water Station’s second phase, according to the DSAMA website, will be able to generate up to 15,000 cubic metres of reclaimed water per day. After the completion of its second phase, Wong said, the station will start supplying reclaimed water to properties in Cotai.
According to the DSAMA website, the future HZMB reclaimed water station will be able to generate up to 25,000 cubic metres of reclaimed water per day. After its completion, the station will start supplying reclaimed water to properties on the HZMB man-made island, in the Zone A, B, C, D, and E land reclamation areas, and on Plot P in the peninsula’s Areia Preta district.
Wong also underlined on Saturday that concerning medium-term and long-term planning, the government will study the feasibility of extending the use of reclaimed water in Macau to more non-potable purposes, such as cooling and circulating water used for large-scale equipment and facilities on commercial premises, as well as water used for decorative or entertainment purposes.
Concerning planning for the medium and long term, Wong said, the government aims for reclaimed water to account for 5 to 10 percent of the city’s total water consumption.
*The term “reclaimed water” refers to wastewater that has been treated and purified for reuse in various applications, such as toilet flushing as well as irrigation or industrial processes. The term “recycled water” refers to water that has been reused in a different way, including processes like rainwater harvesting. In many contexts, both terms can be used interchangeably, but “reclaimed water” is more commonly associated with treated wastewater. – Poe
Marine and Water Bureau (DSAMA) Director Susana Wong Soi Man speaks to reporters in a sitting-out area at the Seac Pai Van public housing neighbourhood on Saturday.
A reporter enters the new Coloane Reclaimed Water Station’s first phase during a media tour organised by the bureau on Saturday. – Photos: Tony Wong
This photo taken during Saturday’s media tour shows the normal and purple pipes connected to a bathroom in a vacant flat in Block 5 of Lok Kuan Building, in the social housing estate in Seac Pai Van. The flat was unoccupied.
