Dubai's waste triples in 9 years

By PMA RASHEED 

The Gulf Today, 27 Sept 2010

THERE Emirate of Dubai has generated a massive amount of 3,746,509 tonnes of waste in the year 2009, according to statistics revealed by the civic authorities on Sunday. In 2000, this figure stood at just 1,046,404 tonnes.

The phenomenal growth that Dubai is currently experiencing, has on the flip side, resulted in the heavy increase in the amount of waste being produced in the city, said Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality (DM).

“The amassing of solid municipal waste in the city increases at an average of almost 20 per cent annually,” he said.

Lootah also raised his worries on these issues, as pressure continues to mount on the city’s waste management mechanism. “The issues of daily waste collection as also its treatment through resource recovery or recycling and its safe disposal, constitute heavy municipal tasks,” he added.

Lootah was speaking on Sunday at a workshop for waste-to-energy project for qualified companies.

“Data gathering for the Al Warsan waste-to-energy plant and geotechnical investigation of the site has been completed,” he said.

“The plant to be located at the 30 hectare plot in Al Warsan will be designed to accommodate 6,500 tonnes of waste per day and the expected power that will be generated from the waste is estimated at 150 MW/h,” Rashed Karkain, Head of Technical Support and Studies Section in the DM’s Waste Management Department.

“The project, featuring the latest, state-of-the-art waste to energy conversion and pollution control technologies, is one of the key components of the integrated approach being set up by the municipality to tackle the waste management problem in the city,” he elaborated.

According to Karkain, the prequalification process of the project was conducted in the last quarter of 2009.

“It was participated by 29 groups of companies from all over the world. After a thorough review of the company’s submissions, only 14 selected to join in the bidding process of the project, in which 11 companies participated,” he added.

“The deadline for the submission of bids and proposal is Dec.19, 2010 and the selection of the winning bidder shall be made after a thorough evaluation of their submitted documents,” said the senior MD official.

“Joint venture with public and private participation could also be thought of,” said Karkain.

“The environment-friendly process of energy recovery through combustion of waste producing electricity is well known worldwide.”

“Many countries having best practices in modern and efficient waste management system have Waste-to-Energy (WTE) plants operating to stringent environmental controls. So, we decided to establish such a plant in Dubai,” he elaborated.