Turning wastewater into a much needed resource

Wastewater treatment in the Middle East

Doha is the second largest producer of the world's natural gas supplies and the rate of growth in the construction and related infrastructure industries is nothing short of phenomenal. However, they have some very real problems with the treatment of sewage and the availability of clean water.

Approximately 20 km outside Doha sits the 'industrial area'. A highway dissecting the desert stretches as far as the eye can see with warehouses, construction camps and industrial sites lining both sides of the highway.

GBG Project Management recently visited one of the many large concrete-manufacturing plants surrounding Doha to check out their sewerage treatment (or lack of) system. Imagine 2000 workers living on site where all the sewage is collected in an inground concrete tank, which has to be emptied 12 times a day by two tankers. That's 24 tankers, 7 days a week, 365 days a year emptying raw effluent into pits somewhere in the desert, which does nothing but damage the water table and the environment.

To compound their problem, the owners have to buy water to wash down their trucks and work areas. There is a monopoly on the sale of water to the industrial sites and they often wait up to 6 hours to buy the much needed water.

Thankfully, every problem has a solution and GBG Project Management proposed a practical, cost-effective means of putting waste to good use. It proposed the installation of the KEWT system on site to treat the effluent, grow a variety of trees and recycle up to 40% of the treated effluent for washdowns, etc.