OMR6bn master plan for sewage system development in Oman
Haya Water has been given 25 years to implement the project which starts in 2020
Times News Service
MUSCAT: Oman Wastewater Services Company has unveiled an OMR6 billion master plan for the future sanitary drainage projects, a senior official at the company revealed on Wednesday.
The government has tasked Haya Water with managing wastewater in all of the Sultanate’s governorates, except for Dhofar.
Before beginning the project, the company worked on a master plan on how to implement all sanitation projects in those governorates.
Roadmap
Eng. Hussain Hassan Abdul Hussain, Chief Executive Officer of Haya Water, said, “We have a master plan in the works, we will be submitting it to the Ministry of Finance by early next year. This master plan shows the roadmap for all the projects that we need to implement in Muscat.”
Haya Water has been given 25 years to implement the project, which starts in 2020. “For regional governorates, we have already started developing the master plan, and it is almost in the final stages. This master plan will govern our project execution,” he added.
With regard to what the master plan entails, Hussain told Times of Oman, “It gives us all the details of the STPs and network we have to build, the areas we need to connect, the time frame, and the cost associated with all these kinds of projects.”
“Sustainability is a key factor in the country’s development and that is why it is very important to us,” Hussain said.
Extending the scope of Haya Water to cover all governorates expect Dhofar is challenging, according to Hussain, as “there is a need to rectify some of the existing wastewater assets and projects in these governorates”.
Sayyid Sulaiman bin Hamoud Al Busaidi, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Ministers, spoke about the government’s support to the development of this sector: “The support of the Council of Ministers to the sanitation and wastewater sector is strong and clear.”
Speaking to Times of Oman regarding why it was important for Haya Water to be a government company, he said: “The main objective behind the company being a government-owned establishment is in order to ensure that the services it provides to the public are regulated by the government.”
According to data released by Haya, there are 11 projects under implementation in Muscat with a total cost of OMR207 million.
Challenges
However, the company has been faced with challenges in implementing some of the projects, including a “lack of commitment to the time schedule of the project implementation by some contractors and the non-acceptance of citizens and residents to the construction in residential areas and roads”.
Currently, Muscat Governorate has eight sewage treatment plants with a capacity of 210,650 cubic metres per day. The capacity is expected to triple in the near future.