BD31m sewage plant nearing completion

Manama : The BD31 million Sewage Treatment Plant project at Al Madina Al Shamaliya, a new town being developed in Bahrain, is nearing completion. 

The Sewage Treatment Plant and Long Sea Outfalls project, one of the biggest sewage treatment projects in the Kingdom, is equipped with tertiary treatment (final filtration) and sludge treatment using aerobic digestion and thermal drying.   

The project, which allows the purified water to be reused for the entire irrigation water requirements for all 13 islands, is being implemented by VA Tech Wabag Limited in cooperation with the Housing Ministry.

“The project is in the advanced stages of construction after completing close to 20,000m3 of concrete works and 4.5km of pipe laying works, including 1.2km offshore works, for the Long Sea Outfall,” Rajiv Mittal, Group CEO and Managing Director of VA Tech Wabag Limited told reporters during a Press Conference held on Sunday. The 40,000 cubic metre-a-day project was awarded to Wabag in 2015. 

Commenting on the developments, Rajiv Mittal  revealed that Wabag will run the facility and its maintenance for a period of 10 years for the Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry.

The BD208 million Al Madina Al Shamaliya (AMAS) is a mixed-use development project creating a new urban town located on reclaimed land off the northern coast of the Kingdom. The project is expected to deliver around 4000 residential units under an affordable-housing scheme by the Ministry of Housing. Foundation stone of the project, funded by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Economic Development (ADFD), was laid by the Prime Minister HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa in the 2000.

Environment friendly

The project, according to Rajiv Mittal, is eco-friendly, for it involves a facility to convert the effluent and sludge from the plant for irrigation and farming purposes.  

The project includes a terminal lift pumping station to receive sewage from the Island’s deep gravity sewer network, which will then be screened and fed to a biological treatment mechanism. This involves removing nutrients before passing it through disc filters for tertiary treatment which also removes helminths eggs. The sludge, a by-product of the process, will be aerobically digested and treated in a diesel fired dryer before placing it equally in 25kg bags for distribution.

“There is also a provision to run the entire plant on diesel generators in case of a power failure,” Mittal said. 

Bahrainis play a key role

Mittal told DT News that the company depends solely on local companies and “all of its contractors are Bahrainis”.

“The company has been operating in the field of water treatment technologies for over 90 years and in 20 countries in the Middle East and Africa. We have always focused on local manpower and developing their abilities. It’s our motto to think global and act local,” Mittal said.  

When asked about future projects, he said the company has placed bids for six major projects in the Kingdom.