Dubai: The second phase of the Jebel Ali sewage plant has been approved and will cost Dh1.3 billion.
Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance and Chairman of Dubai Municipality, approved the project to keep up with Dubai’s expected expansion.
Hussain Nasser Lootah, director-general of Dubai Municipality, said Phase 1 has the latest technology for water treatment, and the new expansion will bring the plant’s capacity to 675,000 cubic metres instead of the current 300,000 cubic metres daily, which is double its capacity.
After the second phase is completed, the cost of the Jebel Ali plant will be approximately Dh2.8 billion, and will serve 1.35 million people.
He said that the plant will not need further expansion until 2025.
“The plant is environmentally friendly and does not pollute the surrounding area, efficiently removes phosphate from water, and uses environmentally friendly methods to produce fertilisers.”
All pumps in Dubai can also be controlled from the Jebel Ali plant, he said.
In addition to coping with the excess flow resulting from the Expo areas and its future expansion, the Jebel Ali station helped divert some of the load from Al Warsan station, which is working above its capacity by 27 per cent.
Treated wastewater helps save water resources as it is used to irrigate parks.
Dubai Municipality produced more than 6.8 million tonnes of fertiliser from processing sewage in 2015, of which 5.2 million tonnes was sold.
