More sewage treatment plants on cards
Several plants of Haya Water are being included in under public-private partnerships (PPPS) during the construction and operation stages
Haya Water is embarking on construction of a number of new Sewage Treatment Plants (STPS) along with increasing the operational capacities of existing plants.
This was revealed at the annual media gathering for ‘sustainability through transparency’ under the auspices of Sayyid Sulaiman bin Hamoud al Busaidi, Deputy Secretarygeneral of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday.
According to Hussain bin Hassan Abdulhussain, Chief Executive Officer of Haya Water, tendering for two of the major projects — the phase two of Al Seeb STP and another project connecting Royal Court facilities and airport heights to the wastewater network — is under initial stages.
“Haya Water gives utmost importance to future projects, whether through long-term or short-term plans, based on studies of population density and urban development in the country”, said Abdulhussain.
The CEO said that the phase two of Al Seeb STP is in the initial stages of tendering, which aims to increase the capacity of the current from 62,000 cubic metres per day to 82,000 cubic metres per day to accommodate larger amounts of wastewater.
The project is estimated to cost RO 14 million and expected to be complete by the end of 2021.
“The Ministry of Finance has already given its approval for obtaining the necessary bank loans to finance the project. The tender is expected to be announced in the fourth quarter of 2018”, Abdulhussain said.
The assigning of contractor expected to be in March 2019.
In other governorates outside Muscat, Haya Water is currently evaluating technologies to rehabilitate and increase the operational capacities of several STPS by constructing preequipped plants or natural STPS.
Answering to questions raised by journalists, Suleiman bin Khamis al Qasmi, Director General of Asset Management said that several plants are being included in the scope for public-private partnerships (PPPS) during the construction and operation is stages. “Haya Water’s master plan seeks to integrate PPP model in building the plants and benefiting from it,” he said.
Al Qasmi said that the master plan was developed after the government mandated the company to build, develop, manage and maintain sanitary drainage utilities in the country.
The number of subscribers in the wastewater networks is around 150,000 — 115,871 in Muscat and 33,542 in the regional governorates except Dhofar — at the end of October 2018.