May 17, 2008

Dubai begins work on water reservoirs

It is reported that Dubai has begun building what will become the world's largest pre-stressed concrete drinking water reservoirs as the emirate attempts to cope with skyrocketing water consumption.

The USD 168.6 million projects is made up of three reservoirs, each with a capacity of 60 million gallons, almost twice the capacity of the Earl Thomas Reservoir in San Diego, US, the current world record holder with a capacity of 35 million gallons.

The reservoirs will be located in the Mushrif area of Dubai and will cover a total area of approximately 16.5 hectares. The project is being built by UAE construction firm the Mammut Group and the Max Boegel Group of Germany. Mammut said construction of the reservoirs was expected to take 15 months.

The reservoirs are part of a AED 12 billion package of infrastructure projects recently unveiled by Dubai Water and Electricity Authority designed to meet the water and electricity demands of all existing and planned projects in the emirate. According to Dewa, Dubai currently has a water capacity of 262 million gallons a day, which is due to rise to nearly 800 million gallons a day by 2015.