Oman’s blue gold

For a dry country with little rainfall, this has created an enormous increase in demand for water – making desalination of seawater and increased collection and reuse of treated wastewater more important than ever.

Growing affluence has seen Oman’s people becoming accustomed to having water supplied to their private households. At the same time, Oman’s government has been building green areas in major towns and cities that require irrigation. The million inhabitants of Oman’s capital Muscat and its suburbs – plus a growing number of tourists visiting the country – have dramatically accelerated the sultanate’s demand for water. It is forecast that this demand will rise an additional 70 percent by 2017.

One initiative to meet this demand is the Muscat Wastewater Scheme Project. Through this scheme, Oman’s wastewater services company, Haya Water, is seeking to connect 90 percent of Muscat’s population to the sewerage system by 2017. The Muscat scheme encompasses the construction of new sewerage infrastructure and wastewater treatment facilities, as well as the expansion of existing treatement plants.

The largest of the wasterwater treatment plants being built is a facility equipped to handle a maximum flow of 50,000 cubic metres water a day and is an upgrade of an existing installation in the Muscat district of Darsait.

think project! used for a further water project in the Middle East

Haya Water awarded the 70 million euro contract to a consortium consisting of Spain’s Cadagua and local company Galfar Engineering & Contracting. Both companies will be responsible for designing, building, operating and maintaining the plant. Consortium leader Cadagua selected the online project collaboration platform think project! for a project in the Middle East for the second time.