“The National Water Company has finished drying the lake in a record time of three months since the company was assigned the task in accordance with orders from the higher authorities last year,” said Al-Hussayen, speaking at a press conference on Saturday.
The Musk Lake, located east of Jeddah’s expressway, had at its peak an estimated 10 million cubic meters of stagnant sewage water. Al-Hussayen said all efforts were taken to drain the lake and dispose of the leftover waste, and that the National Water Company began working on the project last July.
Water from the lake was transferred mainly to two water treatment plants — one near the Jeddah airport and the other in Briman. The remaining sewage water was pumped out to nine smaller lakes to evaporate. Leftover sludge was also transferred to other locations after samples were taken to a laboratory for analysis where it was found that it was free of any substances that could be harmful to the environment.
Al-Hussayen also revealed the completion of a number of projects involving Jeddah’s sewage treatment. “We are currently working on speeding up the remaining projects. We have also started testing at the Jeddah airport sewage treatment plant a year ahead of schedule. On completion, it will have a capacity to process 250,000 cubic meters per day. However, in its testing stage, this plant has contributed to speeding up the draining of the lake by taking an estimated 30,000 cubic meters of sewage a day,” said Al-Hussayen.
The minister also announced the near completion of the implementation of a water pipeline network and estimated that by the first quarter of 2012, homes across Jeddah would be connected to it.
The Al-Khumrah-4 sewage treatment plant will also be completed and in full operation by the end of 2011 with capacity to pump 250,000 cubic meters a day.
“These new water treatment plants will work alongside existing plants, the intake of which will be expanded. These include the Al-Ruwais sewage treatment plant, the Al-Balad sewage treatment plant and the Al-Khumrah industrial district sewage treatment plant,” he said.
“Their combined pumping power will be 643,000 cubic meters per day which will allow for an optimum operation for sewage intake from the city. This will also meet Jeddah's expansion. We’ve also completed projects in northern and southern Jeddah, which include waterways of 50 meters deep and 3.5 meters wide,” said Al-Hussayen.
The National Water Company has brought in contractors and experts in the field to speed up the effort. They include Huta Hegerfeld Company and others.
The sewage lake was established by the Municipality of Jeddah 17 years ago. When it was full of water, it was estimated to be over two and half square kilometers in size and contained some 10 million cubic meters of raw sewage. It bordered more than 17 districts of east Jeddah and received more than 2,000 truckloads of raw sewage a day when in operation.