New Sludge Dewatering Facility to bring redolence to UB

Minister of Construction and Urban Development Kh.Badelkhan cut the ribbon for a brand new Sludge Dewatering Facility at the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant (CWWTP) on Tuesday morning with hopes to curb the stench in some parts of the city.

Sludge stabilization and disinfection weren’t available at CWWTP, which required the plant to dry sewerage sludge for three to four years through natural methods. Plant workers stressed that this was the cause of the bad smell across Ulaanbaatar, before adding that it is harmful to the environment to leave sludge out in the open.

“By opening this new facility, stench from sludge will be eradicated. On the other hand, we’re turning the large amount of sludge accumulated for 30 to 40 years into soil using Japanese technology. We will demonstrate that this soil can be used to grow vegetables. A portion of (accumulated sludge) is being made into fertilizer with assistance from Mongolian researchers. Sludge had filled a total of 44 blocks but we have cleared them entirely. The output of this facility, which will be dried sludge, will not be disposed here in these blocks,” said Minister Kh.Badelkhan.

CWWTP plans to dispose sludge in a special area designated for hazardous waste in Baganuur in accordance with the government’s recent resolution.

“We need to burn sludge in the future. The ministry submitted a feasibility study for building this type of stove but it has been postponed as it requires 100 million USD,” the minister stated.

The new Sludge Dewatering Facility is capable of dewatering 2,500 cubic meters of sludge per day and spins 1,000 to 4,000 times per minute to separate liquid and solid components. Officials stressed that by undergoing the dewatering process, the water content of sludge will be cut down from 99 percent to 26 percent.

“With this process, we can decrease the volume of excess sludge by 50 folds and the volume of raw sludge by five to eight folds – not to mention that the stench will be cleared,” said an official.

The ministry handed over the first Sludge Dewatering Facility built in Mongolia to the Water and Sewerage Authority after the opening ceremony. From now on, the Water and Sewerage Authority will manage all of the facility’s operations.