By Sarmad Qazi
QDVC, Qatar’s first rail transport system builder, is incorporating green initiatives in as many aspects as it can at its Lusail City projects, officials said during a field visit on Thursday.
The Qatari Diar-Vinci Construction Grands Projects joint-venture QDVC is building the Light Rail Transit (LRT), as well as the car parks at the Marina District of the under-construction Lusail City, which will accommodate 250,000 people when completed.
Foremost is the company’s emphasis on saving as much water as it can during all phases of construction.
“We have started a pilot reed bed plant technology, where grey water (toilets) is enabled to be re-used for irrigating plants and without any chemicals,” QDVC LRT project manager Philippe Tavernier explained.
“If successful, this six-month-old trial will be used near all our site offices,” Tavernier added.
LRT is currently designed to feature four tramway operation lines, seven underground stations and 22 grade stations, coupled with a 7km underground line and an 18km grade line.
According to officials, QDVC has been on field since March 2009, and as of now is managing close to a thousand personnel. The daily water usage runs anywhere from 19,000 to 22,000 gallons.
Another way the company is saving tremendous amount of water, is by using a closed-water circuit with filters to re-use the water for engine washing.
“Washing is mandatory, but needs a lot of water: the Quality, Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE) team came up with the solution of recycling the water used for washing vehicles and equipment,” Tavernier said.
Because the worksite is close to the sea, a lot of water is continuously being pumped during the excavation phases. The pumped water has every chance of having come into contact with oil or products from engines and cannot simply be ejected into the sea.
“For this, QDVC built a sedimentation basin to treat the water, where water gets naturally-filtered before being directed to the sea,” the officials explained.
For the worksite wastage, QDVC signed a series of agreements with Qatar-based companies only to recycle paper, cardboard and plastic . It partners Qtel for electrical and electronic waste collection.
“Steel is given to Qatar Steel, while we are also looking at an onsite clean-burning incinerator. We are also considering a chipping equipment to crush timber waste,” the officials said.
The company also has a dedicated and trained team segregating the waste at suitable collection points.
During the tour, the company also revealed that it used energy-saving lamps for night-time work.
“We imported about 40 from France. These ‘Lumaphore’ lamps use about 640W where a halogen one uses 1,600W and incandescent uses 3,520W,” Tavernier said.
In another initiative, QDVC officials said the company had begun CO2 compensation on company’s cars. For every tonne of CO2 emitted, the company pays QR20 to a CO2 offsetting project.
LRT, the officials said, itself will be an eco-friendly project as a public transport system reducing congestion and pollution in Lusail.
To show support towards green initiatives on the national level, QDVC has signed up as the platinum sponsor for the upcoming Green Building Solutions Exhibition and Conference, to be held in Doha from March 2 to 4, 2011.
