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Dubai Municipality launches drainage project for 100 years

As per the project, the rain water and surface ground water shall be collected and moved to deep tunnels and then to be connected to the Arabian Gulf for drainage.

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Dubai - A ground-breaking water drainage project for 100 years, the first-of-its-kind in the region, has been launched by the Dubai Municipality (DM) near Al Maktoum Airport, which will benefit the urban communities close to the airport.

The Dh2billion project covers an area of 400 square kilometres, according to Engineer Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of the DM.

As per the project, the rain water and surface ground water shall be collected and moved to deep tunnels and then to be connected to the Arabian Gulf for drainage.

Lootah said the project is a long-term solution to handle the issue of drainage of rain water and is deemed as a viable solution for the next 100 years.

The cost of the project may exceed Dh2billion, he noted.

It is expected that the municipality shall embark on the project by early 2016.

Engineer Taleb Abdul-Kareem Gulfar, director of the Irrigation and Sewerage Department, DM, said the tunnel intended to be carried out has too much storage capacity.

Gulfar said the drainage tunnel can accommodate as much as 65 tonnes of drainage water per second, or 3,900 tonnes per minute –  which is equal to a hundred times the size of an Olympic swimming pool.“With such high storage capacity, the Al Maktoum airport and surrounding area will be safeguarded and protected from the hazard of floods, which may impede the progress of the development process in the vicinity,” Gulfar said.

The project will help save the government millions of dirhams annually, which could be spent on routine operation and maintenance work of the infrastructure, he added.

It will also save up to 30 per cent of the power consumption.

reporters@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE