Abu Dhabi spends Dh1bn as emirate cleans up act on waste

ABU DHABI // The municipality is spending more than Dh1 billion (US$272 million) on a new waste treatment park on the edge of the city, as part of a programme of work to bring the emirate's facilities up to international standards. The National reported last month that the Government was stepping in to clean up six huge landfill sites where years of uncontrolled dumping were threatening to lead to widespread pollution.

The sites contain a dangerous mix of medical, chemical, household, industrial, construction, agricultural and even military waste. Olabode Esan, the director of solid-waste management at the municipality, conceded that "what we have now is not best practice - that's quite evident, and we know that. "We have to take steps to correct that, so in the last two years, we've been designing and building new sites that are engineered to international best practices."

Currently, said Mr Esan, the emirate relied on the six "dump sites" which, unlike modern landfills that operate according to international standards, do not have impermeable linings to prevent leakage into the surrounding soil. "Essentially, the waste is now just dumped, but in a systematic manner, and then covered with soil." That practice, he said, would soon change. Mr Esan pledged that the "properly engineered" system would be operational next year.

"It's going to be a waste treatment park, effectively," he said. "The whole project is in the construction phase." At a price tag in excess of Dh1.2bn, the new central waste system will include a recycling sorting station at Al Mafraq, as well as a composting site. The upcoming Al Dhafra landfill nearby will process all remaining waste. Meanwhile, the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) is looking into how to rehabilitate the dump sites, amid concerns that runoff from the rubbish could leach into aquifers.

Mr Esan said: "A landfill has containment and a proper drainage system so any leachant that's formed cannot seep out." Down the line, there is also the potential to harness methane gas emissions from the rubbish for use in powering boilers. However, preliminary tests have not convinced the municipality it would be a viable option, because Abu Dhabi does not generate enough organic waste. "At this point we don't have plans to collect gas from the landfill," said Mr Esan. "But in the future, if we find out that there's a lot of methane being produced, then we can retrofit gas collection systems readily."

Building the Al Mafraq recycling facility, which is scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2009 and will sort up to 2,500 tonnes of household waste a day, was a "first step" towards a more environmentally responsible system of solid-waste management, said Mr Esan. Once the facility is ready, the municipality will introduce recycling collection bins and start a public awareness campaign to spread interest in recycling.

The EAD estimates that the city discards about 1,532 tonnes of waste a day. One feature of the park is that it will allow for more recycling schemes to be run in Abu Dhabi - something the public appears to be keen on. "I want to recycle but it is very hard to find places where I can take my waste," said one resident in a call to The National. "There are many like me who want to do what we can for the environment but do not have the facilities available. Hopefully this will change and the local officials will have a lot more campaigns to get waste recycled.

"This country is fairly small at the moment but is getting bigger all the time and we cannot keep going on in the same way we are at the moment." @Email:mkwong@thenational.ae