Oman Environment Services Holding Company (OESHCO), which is mainly incharge of waste management, has opened the tendering process for eight important projects in the past fortnight.
As part of the proposed projects that it has envisaged in the five-year plan from 2011-15, OESHCO has invited tenders from specialised companies for an engineered landfill and material recovery facility in Barka, apart from advisory services for 29 transfer stations and a couple of tenders for waste management services in the upcoming Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Duqm, among others.
With the Barka waste disposal site serving the whole wilayat and other neighbouring wilayats in south Batinah governorate, and considering the complexity of the existing dump site in Barka along with its environmental and social hazards, the need for an engineered landfill in the region has made this an important project for OESHCO.
The new tenders to design, construct and operate a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), and another one to design and construct an engineered landfill in Barka, will expedite the project and replace the existing dumpsite.
The purpose of the tender is to design and construct the MRF, undergo a commissioning phase and consequently operate the MRF at the Barka landfill site for a period of at least a year.
Under the engineered landfill tender, the work will include the provision of manpower, equipment, materials, tools and consumables to design and construct the site.
An OESHCO official said that the past two years were essentially spent undertaking impact assessment, feasibility and site identification studies for setting up of engineered landfill sites, waste transfer stations and waste treatment plants spread across the country. "This year and in the future, we will see much more activity when actual projects start taking shape. The host of tenders announced this month is just an example of how things are going to be in the coming years."
With Duqm seeing unprecedented growth in the last couple of years and the SEZ being the centre of activity, OESHCO has proposed the development of an integrated waste management solution to manage municipal solid waste, hazardous waste and waste generated by healthcare.
The solution will include the entire value chain of waste management from collection, transportation, segregation and treatment to final disposal. However, to cater to immediate needs, the company will construct an engineered landfill with a waste transfer station. For this, it has announced a tender to conduct a geotechnical study for the proposed engineered landfill at the SEZ.
The purpose of this study is to obtain data on the classification and engineering properties of the soil and rocks, and identification of the groundwater scheme to enable the geotechnical and structural design of the landfill and associated facilities. It will also identify any geotechnical risks and constraints.
The second tender for the SEZ is for consultancy and management services as part of an Interim Waste Management Plan (IWMP). The purpose is to develop the IWMP and assess, monitor and supervise waste management facilities and services provided at the SEZ for one year.
© Muscat Daily 2012
