HE the Minister of Works, Municipalities Affairs & Urban Planning Eng. Essam bin Abdulla Khalaf met with the Housing Minister Eng. Bassim bin Yaqub Al Hamar, accompanied by the Housing Projects Assistant Undersecretary Eng. Sami Bo Haza and Housing Properties Chief Eng. Fahim Abdulla. Present from the Works Ministry were the Works Affairs Undersecretary Eng. Ahmed Al Khayyat, Roads Assistant Undersecretary Eng. Huda Fakhro, Roads Planning & Design Director Eng. Kadhim Abdul Latif, Structural Planning Director Eng. Khalid Al Ansari and a number of engineers from both ministries. Both parties highlighted housing projects, actions taken to tackle storm water floods in the areas where those projects are located and the Southern entrance to North Town.
A corporate presentation was delivered; reflecting the efforts extended by the Storm Water Committee to address areas affected by storm water floods, with 80% and 90% success in some areas. Also, other final measures have been put in place to ensure other areas do not witness similar incidents in the future.
Both ministers discussed the latest developments in the project; reiterating the importance of providing protection to ground services and protecting North coastal areas and marine interfaces. They also referred to issues related to access and exit points for North Town.
The Works Ministry is presently working on connecting North Town to the roads network in the Kingdom. The internal roads for the town are to be implemented by the Housing Ministry, while the main roads surrounding North Town, entrance and exit points will be a specialty of the Works Ministry.
Also, the Works Ministry, in coordination with the Housing Ministry, is supervising the construction of a sewage treatment plant in North Town, similar to Muharraq Sewage Treatment Plant, which is a part of the sanitary services strategic plan; based on the concept of decentralization. Both parties are presently working on allocating a proper location for the plant, preparing preliminary designs and selecting the project consultant.
PARSONS, in collaboration with Environmental Arabia, has studied the environmental impacts of the project. Also in response to a request from the Culture Ministry and the UNESCO, Heritage Thinking has been appointed as the consultant to carry out the Heritage Impact Assessment. Coordination has taken place between the Works Ministry, the Culture Ministry and UNESCO.
As for the sanitary works to be implemented in North Town, coordination is taking place with the Housing Ministry in this regard. The sewerage works include designing the sewerage treatment plant with the capacity of 40,000m3/day, expandable to 60,000m3/day; to be able to serve North Town and 10 islands with a total area of 750 hectares.
