CAIRO - Bee’ah, the UAE-based leading sustainability pioneer, and the Administrative Capital for Urban Development, ACUD, officiated Bee’ah’s appointment as the waste management and city cleaning partner for the new Administrative Capital in Egypt at a signing ceremony, marking Bee’ah’s Middle East and North Africa region expansion.

Senior officials present at the ceremony included Bee’ah’s Chairman, Salim bin Mohamed Al Owais; Bee’ah’s Group CEO, Khaled Al Huraimel; ACUD Chairman, Ahmed Zaki Abdeen; ACUD’s CEO, Major General Mohamed Abdulatif, and ACUD’s Head of Services & Solid Waste Management Sector, Major General Adil El-Zmite.

Egypt’s new Administrative Capital is a transformative project and extension of Cairo, as one of the world’s largest urban developments at 500 square km with an expected population of 6.5 million on completion. Designed as a smart and sustainable city of the future, it will also house a new presidential district, government district, diplomatic district, headquarters of the House of Representatives, and 21 residential areas.

Operations at the Administrative Capital will commence next March, with the target of achieving an 80 percent waste diversion from landfill rate.

Bee’ah’s zero-waste strategy in the UAE has led to the highest waste diversion rate in the Middle East for Sharjah at 76 percent, and it is building the Middle East’s first waste-to-energy facility. It has also expanded into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia this year, where it presently serves 1.2 million people in Madinah City.

Salim Al Owais said on the occasion, "This is an ambitious project that will help ensure the growth and prosperity of the nation but on a sustainable and technology-driven footing. As we near our original goal to make Sharjah the first zero-waste city in the region by 2021, we are ready to focus on our wider objective to help foster greener communities across the Middle East, and we are proud to serve the Egyptian people." Ahmed Abdeen said, "Our agreement with Bee’ah will allow us to adopt the latest technologies and advanced digital systems to enhance operational efficiency and achieve a high percentage of waste diversion away from landfills." Khaled Al Huraimel added, "Bee’ah has an established track record as an environmental services pioneer, founded on the twin pillars of sustainability and digitalisation. We will use these principles to achieve an 80 percent waste diversion rate for the new Administrative Capital through advanced recycling facilities and best-in-class waste management solutions." A workforce of more than 1,000 will serve an estimated two million people in the first phase of the city’s development. The team will utilise WastePro+, the region’s first fully integrated digital solution to track and monitor waste throughout the entire waste cycle in real-time.

Over 400 vehicles will be deployed for city cleaning and waste management including the electric waste collection units. These will be complemented by waste collection vehicles, mobile pest control system, vacuum machines vehicles, rapid response vehicles, and more.

Across the Administrative Capital, Bee’ah is introducing advanced underground bin systems and over 30,000 waste collection points.

Fulfilling its mission to inspire the next generation to make positive changes, the Bee’ah School of Environment will develop awareness and outreach programmes for different segments of society.

Bee’ah Egypt’s facilities include a refuse-derived fuel facility, which can process up to 1,500 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily to generate fuel for cement industries and a Bee’ah Egypt medical waste facility that can process up to six tonnes of medical waste per day. Non-recyclable waste will be disposed of in an engineered landfill with gas monitoring and extraction.

© Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2020.