UAE | Housing & Property

International City sewage pools drive motorists off roads

Several large pools of sewage are still plaguing International City after another spill at the weekend.

  • By Alice Johnson, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 23:54 June 22, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Pools of sewage are yet to be cleared from International City streets after the spill during the weekend.
  • Image Credit: Alice Johnson/Gulf News

Dubai: Several large pools of sewage are still plaguing International City after another spill at the weekend.

Italy and Spain clusters are metres away from the sewage pools, which lie on the main road in the Nakheel residential complex.

Pools have been visible intermittently since a larger spill in May and a smaller leak two weeks ago.

Sewage was bubbling up from drains in the road on Saturday evening. Gulf News has also received information that drivers were mounting the pavements to avoid driving through the sewage, and that entire pavements were submerged.

A Nakheel spokesperson said of the previous spill: "There was a small sewage spill over the weekend caused by a surge in the sewage system close to the Italy precinct. A clean-up operation began immediately and the spill has largely been cleaned up."

Keeping pace

The spill occurred at the International City sewage plant, which serves the residential complex on-site.

At the end of last month, a contract was awarded to expand the plant.

A Nakheel spokesperson said: "Metito, world leaders in the design and supply of waste water treatment systems, was recently appointed to double the existing capacity of the sewage treatment plant located within International City."

"The contract was awarded following the success of Metito's first 5,000 cubic metres a day fast-track turn-key plant at the development, which was commissioned in early 2007 and executed in 90 days from site handover to commissioning," the spokesperson continued.

"Metito will employ the Membrane Bio Reactor technology for treating domestic sewage water, which has already being pioneered at Palm Jumeirah. The extended plant will allow Nakheel to keep pace with the rapid population growth at International City, with the high quality effluent used for landscaping and irrigation requirements," the spokesperson said.

International City currently has a population of 60,000 and has an expected population of 100,000 to 150,000. The International City sewage expansion is due to be complete at the end of this month, according to Metito.

Raising a stink

Residents on the other side of International City, in the Persia, Morocco and China clusters, are affected by the smell of the nearby Al Aweer sewage treatment plant, as previously reported in Gulf News.

Complaints about bad odours throughout the area originate from both the Al Aweer plant and on-site plant that experienced a spill at the weekend.

M.Z. has been resident in the China cluster for the past two years. He said: "I'm considering moving out of here. I do want to move out but everything else is very expensive. You can't bear the smell now, it's horrible. The smell is definitely worse and it comes in through the air conditioning."

Al Aweer sewage plant was originally designed to cope with 57 million gallons a day, but is currently running at 70 per cent above design capacity and actually processes 101 million gallons a day.

Although Al Aweer plant does not service the International City, Nakheel commissioned an independent study that recommended that the plant should upgrade.

The upgrade work started in October 2007 and is due to be complete at the end of this month.

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