Qatra Water Solution, a public-private partnership between Sharjah Investment and Development Authority, Shorouk and BESIX which manages Sharjah’s strategic wastewater treatment assets aims to double its treatment capacity by 2022.
Today, we are focused on expanding our wastewater treatment capacity. We aim to double this number by 2022 in order to cope with Sharjah’s growing population,” said Gurvan Dersel, Managing Director of Qatra Water Solutions.
Qatra runs a sewage treatment plant that treats more than 30,000 cubic meters of sewage per day from all over Sharjah. On other future plans, Dersel announced that the construction of a recycled water bottling plant in Bredi will be finished by the end of June to produce reliable and affordable water to local farms and to deliver reusable water for a park near the facility.
“We have pushed sustainability to the limit by turning the sewage plant into a vital refinery concept where anything that comes out can be improved and reused,” said Dersel.
There has been a significant research and development collaboration with the University of Sharjah and the Sharjah Academy of Research on how to reuse treated water on a large scale.
Qatra has just started operating a new facility that generates and delivers high-quality water for non-potable applications, which utilizes the best water treatment techniques available. “It’s the first of its kind in Sharjah.”
The organization remarked that every emirate in the UAE has spent massively in central wastewater treatment over the past 20 years, but nearly 50 percent of this high-quality water is released into the environment, resulting in nutrient saturation of coastal waters, due to the lack of integrated reuse solutions.
Mr. Dressel said the company’s treatment facility is located within the country, without any possibility of draining the treated water into the sea.
Gurvan Dersel MD of Qatra Water Solutions.
“This prompts us to find alternative solutions, such as storage lakes that have become a haven for many birds, pipeline supplies directly to the main tables or the preparation of a water recycling plant. This water is extremely valuable, an affordable and sustainable alternative to desalination water for many applications.”
The Executive Director said wastewater treatment is a cheaper and more environmentally friendly solution than desalination that requires more energy and creates pollution. Qatra’s recycling plant consumes four times less energy than a similar-sized desalination plant which certainly translates into pricing.
