Tribune News Network
Doha
THE Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has received a gold achievement award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) for the Doha South Sewage Infrastructure Programme.
The award acknowledges the programme's outstanding occupational health and safety performance during 2017, in addition to the best risk management practices in all aspects of the programme implementation.
Eng Khalid Saif al Khayareen, Drainage Networks Projects Department Manager at Ashghal, received the award at a ceremony in Glasgow, the UK.
Since its start, the programme has achieved outstanding occupational health and safety performance through adopting a successful strategy that requires constant vigilance and commitment from top leadership at Ashghal, the management and supervision consultant, and contractors down to the construction workers on-site. The award recognises the tireless efforts of the entire team to plan for and ensure that all the works are executed safely.
The strong safety performance and alignment is supported by a committed leadership team, weekly Health, Safety and Environment (HES) site tours, ongoing positive working relationships and collaborative between supervisors and contractors, and supervisory staff empowered to step in and stop unsafe works on-site.
The programme includes the construction of a 16-kilometre main trunk sewer project, divided into three segments Eastern, Northern and Western which will be excavated using 11 shafts. In addition, the programme comprises approximately 24 kilometres of lateral sewer tunnels. The lateral tunnels are being completed using 170 shafts at different locations within Doha South. The flows from these lateral sewers will be conveyed to three segments of the main tunnels, which will then convey the flows to the existing Doha South Sewage Treatment Plant through a 40m-deep foul sewerage pumping station.
An important feature of the programme is the gravity main trunk sewer that will link a number of areas in the south of Doha to the sewage network. It will reduce the environmental impacts by fully controlling the odour at the sewage treatment works and conveying system, and reducing other environmental problems arising from sewage overflow due to excess hydraulic pressure on the existing drainage network, where sewage flows exceed its absorptive capacity.
The programme is designed to serve areas in the south of Doha and the expected population growth. It can be linked to future infrastructure projects when completed, and will enable the decommissioning of more than 20 old pumping stations currently located in the residential and commercial areas in the south of Doha. The programme will be completed in stages starting from Q1, 2019.