Sharjah waste mgmt master plan comes to shape

In an exclusive interview with Khaleej Times, Mr Al Baloushi pointed out that the vision of Sharjah Municipality to combine all efforts and needed resources for a strategic and long-term development and a sustainable integrated waste management concept, would be soon finalised.

'The municipality collects more than 2,500 tonnes of household garbage and different kinds of waste every day within the city. About 15 per cent of this waste is municipal household waste whereas approximately 49 per cent originates from commercial and industrial sources,' he added.

'It has been observed that in past few years, the amount of waste generated in Sharjah has been steadily increasing. In the year 2002, the total waste generated was 634,931 tonnes compared with the year 2003 as 761,848 tonnes almost 20 per cent increase,' he explained, observing that this quantity is expected to reach approximately one million tonnes by the end of year 2004.

Mr Al Baloushi said the increase is mainly due to the enormous land development and construction activities within the city, which is also a clear indicator for the successful social-economic development coupled with rapid and vast growth of the city.

'According to a recent study conducted by the EPS and a German environment engineering advisory firm, about 50 per cent of the collected waste could be utilised through proper recycling to generate valuable materials, which could be used within the municipality. Here, particularly the high organic content, about 49 per cent of the waste, can be transformed to compost or organic fertiliser for the ongoing landscaping efforts of the municipality,' he pointed out.

The existing waste compost plant would be relocated, upgraded and the capacity would be extended by more than five times, Mr Al Baloushi said. 'Besides recycling the organic part of the waste, a new plant at the landfill area is utilising the green wastes of grass and trees, with wastewater treatment plant sludge - between 150 to 200 tonnes per day with solid contents of about 21 per cent - to convert waste into valuable fertilizer and improving the greenery and beatification projects in the city,' he added, saying that the municipality believes that this is considered to be the only cost-effective and innovative means for utilising this material in an environment friendly resource conservation project.

Furthermore, it is planned to convert large amount of the construction waste into valuable material for road pavement and various other uses, Mr Al Baloushi explained.

'The waste management plan does not stop here. There are also some special wastes such as hospital and industrial wastes, used automobile tyres, hazardous liquid and solid based industrial wastes, which have to be handled with great care,' he said.

Following the inauguration of Sharjah's liquid industrial waste treatment facility with latest state-of-the-art mechanism, the municipality is now already in its final stage to implement an innovative treatment plant for medical wastes, using modern non-burn technology for infectious part of such wastes, Mr Al Baloushi added, clarifying that the rest of non-infectious part of the medical waste like radioactive and hazardous materials within hospitals, would be segregated, managed and safely disposed according to acceptable international standards.

Speaking about industrial establishments, he said new environment protection guidelines that target industrial establishments have also been developed and implemented with various resource conservation, recovery, waste minimisation and recycling programme.

'The targeted industries have to submit and implement an environmental impact statement prior to issuing any industrial licence. Therefore, the environmental permits are granted on the basis of filling those environmental impact statement. The EPS will soon launch environmental certification programme for the targeted industrial establishments in Sharjah,' he added.

Mr Al Baloushi said the municipality had also developed a long-term strategy for improving the quality of indoor and outdoor air in accordance with international standards, including public places such as hospitals, shopping malls, indoor souqs, among others.

Shedding light on the strategic plans of the civic body, he explained that the construction of a new waste transfer station had been recently proposed. The project would improve the logistics of the waste collection within the city and would also take into account the expected increase in the volume of wastes during the next few years.

'The rehabilitation and extension of the existing landfill in the Sajjah area would also be among the strategic plans. The landfill will also be equipped with the latest environmental controls and protection systems to prevent possible contamination of the soil and groundwater,' Mr Al Baloushi said.

'However, the biggest challenge still to come would be the installation of a Material Recovery Facility (MRF), which has the duty to segregate all kinds of reusable materials out of the approximately 1,300 tonnes of generated domestic wastes everyday,' he added.

The final target of the municipality is to establish an 'Environment Village or e-Village' area within the surroundings of the municipal landfill. 'This area should be occupied by companies involved in waste management and related business such as recycling,' Mr Al Baloushi noted.

'The municipality expects to realise its vision of the waste management approach for improving the environment conditions in Sharjah during the next two years. At the EPS, we believe that the problems would not totally disappear with the implementation of these reforms. They can be minimised with the active support and participation of the public and private sector, along with other industries, for a win-win situation for all of us in Sharjah,' Mr Al Baloushi said.