Smart water services helping Macao achieve water sustainability

Macao, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, is a peninsula where freshwater is so scarce that about 96% of the city’s raw water comes from Zhuhai. Macao’s location at the Pearl River Estuary makes it highly vulnerable to the threat of salt tides. It is therefore vital to conserve freshwater resources and ensure the quality and safety of the water supply.

On the other hand, with an area of only 32.9 square kilometers, Macao has over 680,000 residents and welcomes over 30 million tourists from all over the world each year. The booming tourism and gaming industries inject economic vibrancy, boost social development and drive demand for safe water.

SUEZ has been a part of the Macao’s community for almost four decades. We provide drinking water production, distribution, and customer services for the entire city, helping Macao preserve its water resources and reinforce its resilience.

Our water treatment plant uses the most up-to-date water processing techniques.  By using the Group’s proprietary technologies, we incorporate smart water into water supply systems and manipulate urban water supply, with Big Data. This further optimizes water supply facilities and the operational efficiency of the water network, to consistently supply high-quality drinking water to all Macao citizens and industries that meets both Macao and European drinking water standards, and surpasses World Health Organization guidelines. We have also been leading the world in terms of water loss, outperforming China’s 14th Five-Year Plan official target of “no more than 9% water leakage rate in municipal water supply networks by 2025”, nearly a decade ahead of schedule.

In the development of smart cities, green buildings are a key component for accelerating sustainable urban development.  Constructed and operated by SUEZ, the Seac Pai Van water treatment plant in Macao is one of the best examples in driving community water conservation efforts. It was also the first water treatment plant in Macao to be awarded the one-star Green Building Design Label. Not only did it achieve a lower energy footprint through energy savings and reclaimed water reuse solutions, but it also significantly improved Macao’s water supply infrastructure as a whole, ensuring the city’s growing water demand in the next decade.

Through our relentless pursuit of innovation, we aim to provide excellent service to our customers. In addition to digital customer service, we have also established a dedicated Customer Liaison Group whose members include more than 20 business and industry groups, as well as civil society organizations and consumer councils. This has enhanced the efficiency of our communications with the government, industry customers, associations and city residents.  It also allows us to deliver timely updates on our continuous service improvements.

Additionally, to ensure customers get their issues addressed swiftly and have access to on-demand support, SUEZ links its WeChat service account to smart metering. In this way, we get accurate, up-to-date information on users’ water consumption and water use habits.

Through smart water solutions and excellent operations and management, we have not only improved water quality and operational efficiency, but also reduced resource consumption. Today, Macao Water is recognized as one of the most successful Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models in Asia, a benchmark for China’s water industry, as well as the Most Inspiring Climate Smart Case by the International Water Association (IWA).