Dubai to build new Dhs30bn sewage system

Dubai plans to build a new deep-tunnel sewerage system that is estimated to cost Dhs30bn, official news agency WAM reported.

The project, called ‘Development of the Century’, aims to accommodate the emirate’s future growth and meet long-term needs for used water collection, treatment, reclamation and disposal.

It is expected to save “millions of dirhams worth of maintenance costs” and will also contribute “millions of cubic metres of irrigation water” for the mega projects being built in Dubai over the next few years, the report said.

The Dubai Municipality has finalised the multi-phase development’s feasibility studies, with its initial costs estimated at Dhs30bn.

A consultancy is now conducting the project’s initial design concept – which should be received by Dubai Municipality in February 2018 – before being thoroughly studied.

It will then be referred to the municipality’s technical committee for review and endorsement.

The project will be executed over six years in two phases, with the first to be launched in Deira and the second in Bur Dubai, confirmed Dubai Municipality director general Hussain Nasser Lootah.

Construction work is slated to take place between 2019 and 2025.

The project will “significantly reduce” the running-cost of the sewage system, since it will replace the pumping stations that require electricity to run and need periodic maintenance, added Lootah.