Some 300,000 cubic metres of waste water will be treated every day at the new facility.

Hussain Nasser Lootah, Acting Director General of Dubai Municipality, said the facility will have a total capacity of treating 1.1 million cubic metres of water daily once fully operational. "This capacity will be built up over a number of phases," he said.

The new plant is to be built on a 675-hectare desert site located south-east of the Jebel Ali Free Zone. Lootah said the main objective of the project is to provide Dubai with the best sustainable, environmental and economical waste water and sludge treatment solution to supplement the existing treatment plant at Al Awir in meeting present and future treatment requirements.

"The key to meeting future requirements is the flexibility to keep pace with the population growth anticipated for Dubai over the next 25 years. To this end, the new plant has been designed to incorporate sustainable reuse of both final effluent, through municipal and agricultural irrigation systems and sludge as a soil conditioner or fertiliser," he added. The first phase of the plant will be operational in three years. (Gulf News)