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Al Awir sewage woes to continue one more year

DUBAI -The ongoing sewage 'mess' at the Al Awir sewage treatment plant might continue at least for another year.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Abdullah Rafeeu, Assistant Director-General for Environment and Public Health Affairs in Dubai Municipality, stated that the Al Awir plant does not have the capacity to handle the vast amount of sewage coming from the labour camps and other areas.

The official added that the sewage treatment plant at Jebel Ali, which is under construction, is slated to open by April next year.

The Al Awir Sewage Treatment plant has been under the scanner for months now with a huge queue of tankers waiting everyday for hours to dump raw sewage.

Earlier, municipality sources had pointed out that there was a technical problem resulting in the closure of some of the points where these tankers used to deposit the sewage.

The tanker operators, who charge Dh1,000-Dh2,000 for each trip, said that with more than half of the points closed, they had no option but to wait for their turns for hours.

Many tankers have even started to dump the raw sewage in open areas, posing a serious risk to public health. Mirdiff is one among the affected places.

'At present, there is no maintenance work going on in the plant. But then with so many tankers coming everyday, the plant does not have the capacity to accumulate the vast amount of sewage.

'We are doing it, somehow, at the moment,' Rafeeu said.

'The Dubai Municipality is building a new sewage treatment plant in Jebel Ali.

'This state-of-the-art plant would ultimately solve the problem. The plant is slated to be operational by April next year.

'Once operational, most of the tankers would be diverted there for the dumping. This will ensure easing of pressure on the Al Awir plant,' he pointed out.

At the Jebel Ali plant, around 300,000 cubic metres of waste water will be treated everyday.

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