A more immediate threat than rising sea levels facing investors in the Macau casino sector is the millions of dollars operators could end up having to spend to install their own water desalination plants.
That could happen if the government doesn’t get round to devising some strategy allowing the territory to become self sufficient in water. Although Macau does have reservoirs of its own, they cannot supply all the city’s needs—especially as with every month that passes there are more and more cups of tea and bowls of noodle soup to be made for more and more visitors. As a result, Macau relies for the balance of its water on Mainland China.
But that makes Macau vulnerable to a systemic problem. It’s that China’s water supply network based on its ancient river systems has become increasingly degraded by pollution and spread increasingly thinly thanks to the demands of industry and the need for dam projects to make up China’s energy supply deficit.
The strength of the seaward bound Pearl River and its tributaries is now reportedly so weakened that during the dry season (i.e. now), when there’s a high tide in the South China Sea, salt water washes up the Pearl River and contaminates the fresh (in relative terms) water used for the drinking supply. This has been going on at least since 2006, so the government has had plenty of warning. That particular autumn the water was so salty that it wasn’t even suitable for making tea. For the Macau government to stick its collective fingers in its ears and go ‘La la la’ until the latest salty water episode is over, won’t wash (if readers will excuse the pun).
Given the amount of money spent by the casino operators on infrastructure, it’s difficult to imagine they are overjoyed by the possibility of one day having to truck in tanker loads of potable water so that the guests in their five-star hotels can have a morning cuppa without screwing their faces up in disgust.
There are potential political problems with any move to try and make Macau self-sufficient in water. Under the ‘One Country Two Systems’ approach devised for Macau and Hong Kong prior to their return to Chinese sovereignty in the late 1990s, the idea is that over time the two Special Administrative Regions grow closer to the motherland economically and socially, not more distant. Any move, therefore, toward water independence for Macau would potentially be seen as ‘unpatriotic’ in some quarters. But if ‘patriotism’ means defying rationality and threatening a basic utility fundamental to the smooth running of billions of dollars of casino investment, then Asian Gaming Intelligence thinks there’s case to be made for a bit of Western-style individualism.
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