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29 March 2024

Key Dubai civic projects on track

Olympic swimming pool, wastewater plant on schedule. (EB FILE)

Published
By Sona Nambiar

Dubai Municipality is on track to meet its targets on key projects, including the Olympic-standard swimming pool and the wastewater treatment plant in Jebel Ali.

In an exclusive interview, Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director-General of Dubai Municipality, told Emirates Business yesterday the 10/10/10 target for the Olympic swimming pool will be met.

"Being a service organisation for the government, we concentrate on the needs of the people and infrastructure. By 10/10/10, we will complete the Olympic swimming pool," said Lootah.

He said the Dh2.5 billion allocated from the municipality budget for completion of construction projects this year will ensure all commitments stay on track. The municipality's total approved budget for 2010 is Dh4.393bn.

The wastewater treatment plant in Jebel Ali is also on track, he said. "We have started the partial completion of the wastewater treatment plant in Jebel Ali and started trials. It will be operational within a year," he added.

Clarifying the green building legislation, Lootah said there is a time scale to implement the findings of consultants. "We do not want to put the extra cost on people who are building projects. We started with the insulation for buildings and that is implemented as part of law. Now we are working on reducing the usage of water and electricity and introducing other green materials like brick, double and triple glazing for buildings and looking at building management systems," he said.

In collaboration with WSP, an engineering consultancy, the Building Department of the municipality developed a legislative framework to guide green building design. The regulations are in line with the Dubai Strategic Plan and will be an ongoing process for new buildings with a tier structure. DM and Dewa were asked to look after the implementation of regulation 161, issued in 2008.

 

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