September 10th, 2009 @ kadraoui
THE troubled Tubli Bay has been given a new lifeline with plans for a full cleanup and rehabilitation project within six months. It will entail fixing and rerouting sewage networks in the area, improving operations in the Tubli Sewage Plant and fixing damage caused by reclamation. Factories surrounding the bay will be forced to adopt new environment friendly technologies to avoid any possible shutdown, said Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environ-ment and Wildlife head Shaikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa. He said the bay was now on its way to “flourish” again with the available budgets being approved by the government and referred to the Works Ministry, which will carry out work,.
The government initially took action to rehabilitate and protect the bay after a black patch of sewerage discharges surfaced in June 2007, leading to a huge damage to marine resources.
The Cabinet decided to assign a specialised company to assess the bay’s environmental problems. It completed its report last September and presented it to the ministerial services and public utilities committee. This was approved on Sunday, Officials and environmentalist have been complaining for years that the bay’s conditions have deteriorated due to the lack of water flow following reclamation work on the new Sitra Causeway. Councillors claimed last month that thousands of fish have been dying everyday due to mounting sewage and there were constant complaints from residents about the worsening stench in the area.
“His Majesty King Hamad is really concerned about the welfare of the bay and this is why protection methods were sought before it is destroyed beyond repair,” said Shaikh Abdulla, who is also Southern Governor. “The ministries and government bodies concerned perhaps did not think that the issue is a priority or considered it less important than other projects. “Now, the real work will begin and all sewage networks in the area will be fixed and rerouted. “Operations in the Tubli Sewage Plant will be further improved and work will be carried out to improve the flow of water currents, which were destroyed by reclamation. “The factories surrounding the bay will also be either forced to adopt new technologies or closed down. Rusty factories are already on their way to be closed down without any negotiation.” Shaikh Abdulla said the bay was now being given a new lifeline.
“The marine life will flourish, the birds will love to come back and the mangroves will grow once again,” he said. Companies can now bid for a contract to remove the sludge, which is said to have seeped into the bay from
the Tubli sewage plant over several years. Contractors will have to tackle the sludge by surrounding it with sand and treating it with substances designed to break it down. A Royal Decree considering the bay’s remaining area of 13.5sq km as a protected zone was issued in 2006 after parliament launched a probe into large numbers of lands being sold inside the bay.
The Manama and Centra Municipal Councils and the Municipalities andAgriculture Affairs Ministry have already outlined the bay’s size, whose area is more than 13.5sq km. The Royal decree, issued in August 2006, determines the bay’s size as 13.5sq km.
Clean
There is no agreement yet on whether owners of lands in the bay, which are no reclaimed yet, should be compensated or not. Shaikh Abdulla said that it was not the commission’s duty to compensate land owners. The Works Ministry said last September that the method selected to clean up the bay included surrounding the sludge within the confines of sand walls and metal plates. It said that this would ensure that the contaminants do not spill further into the bay. It is hoped officials will be able to restore mangrove swamps to the area once it is cleaned up.
alaali@gdn.com.bh
Tags: Gulf Daily News, Press, Tubli