Water Resources and Importance of Reservoirs

Abstract

Sustainability emerges as a green conception from its potential to balance development and environment, especially in urban water system. Macau is a seaside city but with water scarcity and owns two main storage reservoirs, of which 96 % raw water comes from the West River of Mainland China. However, the water quality in the upstream is worsening, and salt tide periodically affects the raw water, which deteriorates the water resource and affects the sustainability of the whole city. To solve the problems, the government introduces a series of policies including reclaimed water plan, rainwater collection plan, and saving water plan. To better assess the risk of algal blooms forming, eutrophication analysis has become a routine monitoring item. The results show that Main Storage Reservoir is categorized as a reservoir between eutrophic and hyper-eutrophic degree.