The government has announced that its flood protection project off Coloane’s western coast, including a 1,200-metre-long dyke in the coastal waters, will get off the ground in the near future, aiming to protect low-lying Coloane Village from flooding.
After Super Typhoon Hato hit Macau in August 2017, the government started to plan various flood protection projects for the short, medium and long terms, including one off Coloane’s western coast.
The project off Coloane’s western coast, one of the government’s planned flood protection projects for the medium term, was proposed in 2019, with a dyke in the coastal waters as its main component, consisting of two sections to “form two lakes”, one off the Coloane Village waterfront and the other off the waterfront of the Lai Chi Vun shipyards area located north of Coloane Village.
After completing its various feasibility studies and designs, the government hired Nam Kwong (Group) Company Limited – the only state-owned enterprise headquartered in Macau – late last year to carry out the flood protection project off Coloane’s western coast.
Coloane Village, near the island’s western waterfront, is a low-lying area susceptible to flooding. In addition to floods caused by storm surges triggered by typhoons, the area can also be affected regularly by flooding when the special administrative region is affected by a high astronomical tide.
A statement by the Public Works Bureau (DSOP) announced on Friday that the flood protection project off Coloane’s western coast will get off the ground in the near future. The statement noted that the project, one of the government’s medium-term projects for its disaster prevention and mitigation plan, aims to solve the long-standing flooding woes affecting the island’s western waterfront area.
The statement also said that DSOP officials held a presentation session in the neighbourhood on Thursday, briefing community association representatives and residents living there about the project and the government’s various special measures to be implemented during the project’s execution.
‘Two-lake proposal’
The main component of the project is a 1,200-metre-long dyke in the coastal waters off Coloane’s western coast, consisting of two sections, with one section to run from near Tam Kong Temple at the southernmost tip of the waterfront Avenida de Cinco de Outubro (十月初五馬路) to the central part of Coloane Village, “forming a lake” between the dyke and the village’s coastline, while the other section will run from near Coloane Pier to the northernmost part of Lai Chi Vun Village, “forming a lake” between the dyke and the waterfront of the Lai Chi Vun shipyards area.
Consequently, the dyke project is also informally known as “two-lake proposal”.
In addition, the project will include four floodgates in the dyke, as well as a hydrographic observation station to be located near the coastline of Zhuhai’s Hengqin island.
The Public Works Bureau announced in November last year the government’s decision to get the project off the ground and to directly hire Nam Kwong to carry out the project without launching a public tender.
The bureau said in November last year that the project was slated to take between two and three years.
According to the DSOP website, the project has a price tag of 566 million patacas.
Friday’s statement also underlined that the project can now get off the ground thanks to the completion of various design processes, research studies and geotechnical investigations last year. Moreover, the statement said, the local government has improved its plan for the project’s execution in compliance with suggestions raised by experts from the mainland authorities.
According to the DSOP website, the dyke project is designed in a way that will be capable of preventing floods with a level of a 200-year recurrence interval.
This photo taken yesterday shows a man sitting on the wall and using his smartphone at the Coloane Village waterfront. – Photo: Tony Wong
This satellite image downloaded from the Public Works Bureau’s (DSOP) website yesterday shows the plan for the upcoming dyke project off Coloane’s western coast.
