Dubai Municipality ushers in new year with AED 7 billion projects

Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director-General of Dubai Municipality, has revealed that the municipality has allocated AED7 billion in this year's budget for executing infrastructure development and new large-sized high-priority projects and services in the field of health and environment.

"The lion's share of the volume of expenditure in the budget will be received by the storm water tunnel project for the Airport City and the Expo 2020 Venue areas, which amounted to AED5 billion. These projects, which will be completed by 2019, are 55 percent completed, and will be operational before the opening of Expo 2020. Work is under way in full swing on an area of 42,000 hectares," said Lootah.

He said that the project includes the construction of a main line to collect rainwater to serve the Airport and Expo areas. "The areas of the project include Deira, for which an initial study has been done. Currently, primary design is being studied, which includes the drilling of two tunnels and the pipelines will be extending up to 13 kilometres," said Lootah.

"The sewage treatment plant in Jebel Ali comes in second place in terms of importance. It is worth AED1.4 billion and will be completed in 2018, and will serve 1.8 million people in an area of 25,000 hectares. It will also be keeping pace with future expansion projects, as well as the high-profile events that will be witnessed by Dubai, notably Expo 2020," he said.

"The Jebel Ali plant will reach the capacity of up to 675,000 cubic meters per day instead of its current capacity of 300,000, as it is designed with the latest international technology and made safe and environmentally friendly. It also ensures the water generated is with the high characteristics and quality to be used for irrigating plantations," said Lootah.

He stressed that the expansion will be carried out at the station with three basic objectives: to absorb the excess flow resulting from the Expo areas, keep up with the upcoming expansion projects in the emirate, and the diversion of a portion of the load of Warsan Station to Jebel Ali, as it is operating above design capacity by about 27 percent.

He pointed out that it is perfectly safe, and the municipality has taken all precautions, saying that the sludge will be dealt with thermally to produce high quality fertiliser, which can be used to enrich agricultural land.

He explained that the treated water from the sewage is used to reduce the pressure on water resources, as it is used in every major public park, residential park, neighborhood park, resorts, natural areas, entertainment and recreation venues, and in the city greening as a whole, adding that it is also used in cooling and watering the city, and reducing the temperature in hot areas in the vicinity of factories or uncultivated areas.

"The municipality also faces the challenges of increasing waste water quantity, and is keen to raise the level of health within the ecological system of the Emirate of Dubai. We want to increase the areas connected through the sewage networks in Dubai to 100 percent. Hence, we have embarked on a project to establish a sewerage and storm water drainage network in Khawaneej-2 at a cost of AED300 million. This project, which covers the entire areas of Khawaneej-2, will be completed this year," he said.

He added that the Deira area development project, with a cost of AED243 million, covers several areas such as Al Qusais and includes the establishment of 13.7 km long underground sewer lines, expected to be completed in 2018.