The Dubai Municipality has announced that a $354m expansion of the Jebel Ali Sewage Treatment Plant is complete. The project’s water treatment capacity of 375,000cu/m takes the combined capacity of the Warsan and Jebel Ali plants to approximately one million cu/m and can be expanded further.
According to a statement, the expansion is characterised by a 25% reduction in energy consumption and produces about 232bn cu/m of irrigation water that is compliant with international standards. The project is said to support plans to plant trees in the city in a big way, as this water is said to be enough to irrigate 6,250 hectares of cultivated land.
“This expansion will cover the Expo and other areas of development and can accommodate the continued and future population growth with high efficiency. It will also support the strategy of the provision and preparedness of infrastructure. We have also reduced the cost of treating the wastewater to make this the world’s lowest expansion,” said Dawoud Al Hajri, the director-general of Dubai Municipality.
The project was completed with 10m working hours and used 143,000cu/m of reinforced concrete, 24,000 tons of reinforced steel, 2,659 mechanical and engineering equipment and machinery, 700km of cables and 30km of pipes.
“What is unique about this project is the participation of a young cadre of 13 engineers, including three women,” explained Al Hajri.
Fahad Al Awadhi, the director of the Drainage and Irrigation Department served as the project manager and said the first part of the project deals with water treatment and the second with the treatment of solid materials.
He also said the project is set to handle 21,900-tonnes of solid waste that is rich in nutrients, which makes them suitable for use as fertilisers and biofuels.