JEDDAH, 8 July 2007 — The Jeddah municipality has revealed yesterday the cost — SR28.4 million — of the contract that was signed last January with a foreign company to turn Briman lake, also known as Musk Lake, 15 kilometers to the east of Jeddah, into a public forest.
Khaled Aqil, deputy mayor for services, said the contract of developing the lake was signed with a specialized foreign company — city officials haven’t named the firm except to say it is British — that would study the environmental affects of the lake and how to treat its water.
The six-month contract, he said, is the first of its kind in the Gulf region and it covers an area of 2.5 square kilometers. Now the contractor is starting the actual work after completing the study phase.
More than 200,000 trees would be planted in the area in addition to a plant fence that would surround the forest. A water refinery plant would also be established for the purpose of purifying the lake’s water, which is to be used for irrigating the forest.
The project is made for the public, he said, as the project includes pathways, public seats, vending machines, solar powered light polls, a celebration tent in addition to a watchtower and surveillance cameras for safety measures.
He said the water refinery plant could produce more than 30,000 cubic meters a day. The municipality has signed with a separate contractor for SR13 million to operate the refinery around the clock.
He said the municipality has established three pools in the pathway to the lake to stop oil and industrial waste from reaching the lake. Currently, municipality officials are studying ways to remove oil and floating objects from the surface of the lake in order to increase the evaporation rate.
Aqil said the municipality is planning many future projects for the lake area including a safari park and a golf course for the people of Jeddah. He added that in the near future the municipality would offer a contract to increase the power of the current water refinery.
He said the lake contains 9.5 million cubic meters of sewage water that is spread over a 2.6 square kilometer area. About 800 tanker trucks dump 50,000 cubic meter of sewage water into the lake each day, he added.
