What are the key focuses of development for your company when moving forward?

AHMED AL AMMARI The key consideration is sustainability, which must be built in to each stage of a project. The first step is the selection of equipment that will have the least impact on the environment. The use of other technology, such as thermal energy storage, would help in reducing the bulk consumption of power. On the other hand, the use of treated water instead of fresh water for district cooling plants has a hugely positive environmental impact on the country. It was the District Cooling Department—Kahramaa, the country’s new DC services regulator body, which took the initiative and introduced the concept in 2013. We achieve sustainability goals by looking at each stage of the project and examining how much more importance and value we could provide at each stage. This will mandate our actions at certain stages, and require the adoption of specific systems to make sure we have an overall sustainable approach to the service.

GEOFFREY PIGGOTT Our main focus of business is environmental infrastructure. We are very much focused on three or four main areas. One is effectively solid waste management and the conversion of that waste into energy and recyclable products and other byproducts, which then can be used in the wider economy. Other areas that we are interested in are wastewater treatment. We are able to treat sewage to a point where the water is completely recyclable and can, if necessary, effectively become drinking water again. This is also based on our experience in Singapore. We focus on R&D in our offices in Singapore and Belgium. In Qatar, we have mostly been doing that on the job. With the waste-to-energy plant, we regularly develop mechanical and electrical systems to further improve equipment reliability.

In which areas of your services do you expect to see the greatest demand as large infrastructure projects continue to progress in Qatar?

AAA Since Qatar is a hot country, the greatest demand will come from district cooling as most of the other infrastructure is already developed in the country, while district cooling remains less common. It brings value, power saving, sustainability, and is intended precisely for megaprojects. The second highest demand will be in waste management, where there is a need for improvement not only downstream, where you have waste collection, but also in developing the recycling business, including the need to deal with electronic waste. The third demand is the gas distribution system. Though the country once relied on gas cylinders for domestic use, it is now at the developing stage of moving to gas networks, serving bigger areas, instead of having traditional gas cylinders hooked up to residential units.

What is the current state of the Doha North Sewage Treatment Plant?

GP It is another huge project; we have a 10-year operating and maintenance contract on that project. In terms of construction and commissioning, we are almost 90% of the way through, having commenced commissioning activities. It is a huge plant, with a total wastewater capacity of 439,000 cubic meters per day. Once finished, it will be the largest plant in the Middle East, and the largest sewage treatment plant employing such cutting edge technology. It goes all the way through the treatment processes and through what we call ultra filtration and ultra-violet disinfection. It is one step short of drinking water basically, but good enough quality for landscape and agricultural irrigation.