The plant is due to open in 2012. The municipality will build the plant in three phases, each with capacity to treat 100,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) of wastewater.

Sharjah is seeking a consultant for the project.

The municipality has operated a 230,000-cm/d wastewater treatment plant in the industrial area since 1978.

The UK’s Halcrow and Belgium’s Besix have worked at the site since the mid-1970s.

Sharjah’s population is growing at an annual rate of 6 per cent with an average 100,000 new residents a year.