JEDDAH: Jeddah Municipality is considering the possibility of pumping treated sewage through one of the city’s rainwater canals into the Red Sea to lessen the amount of sewage at Wadi Al-Asla lake, located northeast of the city.
“Treated sewage will be poured into the sea through the Southern Rainwater Canal,” said Ibrahim Kutubkhana, undersecretary at the mayor's office in Jeddah.
He added that the Ministry of Health had some reservations about pumping sewage into an open canal as this might lead to environmental and health problems. The proposed scheme, which will be executed in two phases, will cost SR90 million. Municipal officials say the move would speed up the removal of sewage from the city.
At a meeting last week, the Council of Municipalities in Jeddah recommended that sewage be pumped through huge pipes into the Red Sea. On an earlier occasion, Hussein Al-Baar, head of the Environment and Hygiene Committee at the Municipal Council, warned that such a move would cause environmental problems.
Kutubkhana, however, assured there were no environmental issues relating to the pumping of water into the uncovered canal. “The sewage would only be sent out after the tertiary stage of treatment using the most advanced technology,” he added.
The official added that the municipality planned to plant trees along the lake to help drain water. The lake contains 9.5 million cubic meters of sewage spread over an area of 2.6 square kilometers. About 800 tanker trucks dump 50,000 cubic meters of sewage into it every day.
The municipality recently received SR95 million in aid from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to deal with the lake.
The municipality runs nine sewage treatment plants, which have the capacity to treat only 50 percent of the sewage collected in the city, causing the formation of the sewage lake.
There are also new projects to pump out 90,000 cubic meters of raw, untreated sewage per day. “When the new projects are completed the output of the treated water will reach 60,000 cubic meters a day,” Kutubkhana said.
It was also reported that the city dumps untreated sewage directly into the Red Sea because the infrastructure is inadequate to handle the amount of waste produced by residents.
