By Peter Alagos
Business Reporter

Qatar’s Public Works Authority (Ashghal) is planning to roll out big-ticket projects on wastewater treatment aimed at increasing production of high-quality treated water from 183mn cu m to 366mn cu m over the next five years, an official said.

Speaking at a workshop entitled “Successful Experiences in Wastewater Treatment and Reuse in the GCC” held at the Marsa Malaz Kempinski on Tuesday, Ashghal president Nasser bin Ali al-Mawlawi said the major projects include the Sewage Treatment Plant project in Al Thakhira, the fifth package of expansion works for the Doha West Sewage Treatment Plant project, the Doha North Sewage Treatment Plant project, and the second package of the expansion works for Industrial Area Sewage Treatment Plant project.

This is in addition to the major Sewage Treatment Plant project in southern Doha, which will have an operational capacity of 500,000 cu m per day, and will be constructed as part of the Inner Doha Re-sewerage Implementation Strategy (Idris).

Over the past 10 years, Ashghal increased its production of high-quality treated water from 55mn cu m in 2005 to 103mn cu m in 2010, while in 2014 the production of treated wastewater reached 169mn cu m, al-Mawlawi said.

He said Ashghal has set design standards for treated water produced from main treatment plants.

The standards include multiple processing stages to reach advanced tertiary treatment levels by means of microfiltration membrane technologies, which have higher efficiency than sand filters.

This has been implemented in various plants: the West Doha plant (Al Sailiya), South Doha plant, Industrial Area plant, and the Doha North new treatment plant, he said.

He added that this technology is also being implemented at Al Thakira's treatment plant to produce high-quality treated wastewater for use in non-restricted irrigation.

Al-Mawlawi noted that in 2004, Ashghal took over wastewater treatment operations “not only for environmental protection goals, but also to enhance the utilisation of water resources in the country.”

In addition to the use of treated wastewater in restricted and non-restricted irrigation and “green” spaces, al-Mawlawi said Qatar was moving to expand the use of treated wastewater for cooling and construction purposes.

Khaled Mohamed al-Emadi, manager of Quality and Safety Department at Ashghal, and head of the GCC’s Treated Wastewater Team, said the workshop underscores the increasing global need for the beneficial reuse of treated wastewater and the role it plays in environment conservation, expanding green spaces, and food security.

Al-Emadi said several countries are increasing their reuse of treated wastewater for sustainability and to preserve national and environmental resources for future generations.

“The objective of the GCC’s treated wastewater team is to exchange expertise in the field of treated wastewater techniques, raise the community’s cultural awareness, apply sustainability according to international standards, adopt the most economic ways of treatment, and implement the use of alternative energy in operating treatment plants,” al-Emadi explained.

During the workshop, Ashghal’s Quality and Safety Management Department was honoured for recently receiving the ISO9001 certificate for Quality Management System, ISO14001 certificate for Environmental Management System, and OHSAS18001 for Occupational Health and Safety Management System.