Ashghal’s integrated plan for rainy season a success

The heavy rainfall over several days all over the country has proven the efficiency of the rainwater drainage networks and systems on all main roads and tunnels and revealed the success of the Public Works Authority’s (Ashghal) integrated plan for the rainy season 2014–2015. Ashghal, in co-ordination with the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning (MMUP) and the National Control Centre, started developing and implementing an integrated plan for the rainy season by September 2014. As a result of the procedures and precautions, there have been no water stagnation on the main roads or tunnels throughout the rainfall period. Ashghal’s plan included developing the operations management centre and training the work team to deal with emergencies; equipping an operations centre to manage and contain emergencies at Ashghal’s Assets Affairs along with conducting continuous simulation drills for Assets Affairs’ employees to respond to emergencies; increasing the capacities of the customer service centres and responding to emergencies 24 hours a day.The plan also included equipment such as surface water pumps and generators that have been tested for quality and readiness. Moreover, backup generators were distributed on the main pumping stations in September 2014, and pumping stations were connected to the Central Control Room for early warning regarding potential emergencies.The procedures covered areas with existing infrastructure as well as areas with infrastructure yet to be developed. Maintenance works were carried out in the developed areas and rainwater drainage system was used to ensure its effectiveness. Ashghal co-ordinated with the MMUP to take necessary measures to avoid the rain water clogging in areas without infrastructure.To control rainwater drainage in areas lacking infrastructure, drainage systems operations and maintenance team in co-operation with the municipalities, determined the roads most likely to experience water clogs and equipped those roads with mobile pumps. This helped reduce water stagnation compared to previous years. A plan was devised in co-operation with municipalities to manage any emergency water clogging incidents during the rainy season, including a traffic management contingency plan in critical areas across Qatar.Ashghal also carried out its regular preventive measures which include regular cleaning of more than 45,000 rainwater drainage networks and sewerage systems, in addition to cleaning storm water drainage manholes in tunnels prone to water clogging. Ashghal also tested all the permanent water pumps installed at these locations and carried out preventive maintenance on pumping stations, water wells and storm water drainage manholes and the connected pipes in the tunnels. Page 8