Palm Water, a leading water and wastewater utility company, has activated its first temporary water sewage treatment facility in Jebel Ali Free Zone.

The facility is part of a water and wastewater plant design, build, own and operate (DBOO) contract with the Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (Jafza) with an original budget of $550 million.

The facility services the landmark Jafza View 18 and 19 twin towers as well as the new buildings constructed in downtown Jebel Ali adjacent to the towers. It has a treatment capacity of 1,000 cubic metres per day and uses the latest Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) technology.

“This facility will provide us with valuable directions on how to further progress in the Jafza Utility Project, in terms of satisfying the unique needs of the free zone and its components. It also highlights the need for similar high-end water treatment facilities and technologies throughout the UAE and the entire Middle East in order to better manage the region’s limited water reserves,” said Keith Levers, CEO, Palm Utilities.

Building and industrial projects alone in the Middle East will consume more than 112 billion litres of potable water from 2008 to 2009. The region plans to spend around $120 billion through 2017 on water investments to meet demand, especially from growth sectors such as construction and tourism. Reliable and efficient water and wastewater management services for high-profile developments thus remain highly sought.

A second MBR facility has also been completed for the estimated 18,000 residents of the new Jafza South Staff Accommodation Facility. The 8,000 cu m per day STP will use 20 per cent of its effluent to irrigate the staffing facility’s landscape. Palm Water has also installed tanker filling points to distribute effluent to other parts of the free zone and surrounding developments for use in irrigation and construction.

Other temporary facilities being developed are a 750 cu m/d facility for the new Jafza Convention Centre and a 200 cu m/d facility for the new Technopark HQ building. The first two facilities and the effluent outfall construction took 18 months to complete at a cost of Dh53 million. Excess effluent, which meets the discharge criteria set out by Jafza, will be initially discharged to the sea via an already-existing 7 km outfall pipeline. The re-use of effluent for irrigation purposes will become effective once the irrigation networks are in place.

The facilities will eventually be replaced by a 112,000 cu m/d centralised MBR STP in Jafza South which will include a tanker reception facility to contain 4,000 cu m/d of industrial wastewater. Palm Water is also developing an 80,000 cu m/d polished water plant to supply district cooling plants within Jafza, Technopark and Downtown Jebel Ali.

Palm Water and Jafza are also planning a 100,000 cu m/d Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant in Jafza North to provide potable water to Free Zone and Technopark facilities. The first phase of the permanent sewage and water facilities for the area will finish by the end of 2010, with a project completion target of late 2012.

“While the Middle East is home to 5 per cent of the global population, it maintains only 1 per cent of the world’s renewable fresh water. Factor in the construction boom enveloping the region and what you have is an urgent need for newer and better water-related products and solutions. Jafza represents just a drop of our capability to provide exceptional services covering the entire water resource spectrum, from desalination and transmission to wastewater treatment and reuse,” said Levers. – TradeArabia News Service