Oman’s state-owned Haya Water is planning to invest RO1.25bn ($3.2bn) on new sewerage projects to improve and expand the country’s wastewater network.

Speaking at a conference in Muscat, Khalid al-Lawatia, deputy general manager for projects at Haya Water, said the investment would be directed towards building sewage treatment plants (STPs), sewage pipelines and trunk lines in six catchment areas in the Muscat governorate. The areas include Bausher, Al-Amerat and Seeb.

Al-Lawatia said there were RO304m of planned projects in the Bausher area, RO200m in Seeb and RO154m of schemes planned in the Al-Amerat catchment area.

He said several multimillion-rial projects were currently under construction, including RO404m of projects in Seeb and RO122m in Bausher.

Al-Lawatia said the company had recently commissioned the Qurayyat STP, and that a larger facility was currently under development at Darsait.

The projects are part of Haya Water’s plans to connect 80 per cent of properties in the Muscat governorate to the sewerage network by 2020.

Limited availability of service corridors and a shortage of local contractors with required expertise are challenges the firm faces in delivering its ambitious infrastructure programme, said Al-Lawatia.

MEED reported in June that South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction had been awarded an estimated RO31m contract to build the second phase of the Al-Ansab STP in Oman.

The work will involve increasing the capacity of the plant from the existing 55,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) to an average flow capacity of 96,000 cm/d and a maximum flow capacity of 125,000 cm/d, as well as upgrading associated infrastructure. It also includes increasing the capacity of the Azaiba central pumping station, at a separate site, from its current 1,500 litres a second (l/s).