Project Spotlight: Santo Domingo's La Zurza wastewater plant

Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic, has suffered from significant pollution in many of its rivers, with most of the contamination deriving from wastewater discharges. 

With the objective of solving this problem and boosting the tourism potential of the city, the national government developed a master plan that includes various sewerage works. 

One of the works entails construction of the Mirador Norte-La Zurza wastewater treatment plant, a project that is being managed by Santo Domingo's water and sewerage utility CAASD.

Construction on the plant began in April 2016, with an original completion deadline of 24 months. 

Building the first phase of the facility requires an estimated 55mn euros (US$64.35mn), a sum that is being financed by Germany's Deutsche Bank.

Works in the first stage were expected to conclude during this year's first quarter, but current progress on the infrastructure is around 90%.

The plant is expected to undergo expansions every 10 years, as recommended by the master plan.

The project is expected to benefit more than 450,000 residents of the northern area of the national district subdivision of the country, home to Santo Domingo, and the Santo Domingo Norte municipality.

The turnkey contract to build the project was awarded to a Spanish consortium comprising Incatema Consulting (63%) and Inypsa (37%). 

PROJECT DETAILS

Once complete, the plant is expected to treat 1.2m3/s of the wastewater produced in the Cristo Rey, La Zurza, 24 de Abril, Simón Bolívar, Ensanche La Fe, Villa Juana, Villa Agrícolas, Villa Consuelo, Los Guarícanos, Sabana Perdida and Villa Mella districts. 

The plant will contribute to cleaning up the local Ozama and Isabela rivers.

The facility is meant to serve as a wetland, through artificial lagoons with flotation plants that will purify the water before it flows into the rivers.

The plant will use biological filtration, purification and disinfection technologies, while sludge produced will undergo treatment processes including anaerobic digestion and dehydration.

Some of the components of the facility have already been completed, including the primary and secondary decanters, and the grease and sediment filters.

In addition, over 3,000m of 48-inch diameter pipes have been laid. The consortium is currently working on the construction of underground infrastructure to install 36-inch pipes and connect them to the 48-inch ones. 

COMPLEMENTARY TENDER

Late last month, CAASD launched a complementary tender for the construction of a pumping station – another one of the plant's components. 

The deadline to submit bids is currently July 4. Only the offers of those bidders whose technical proposals were approved will be opened on July 11.

The process of reviewing bids is expected to be completed July 13, with the awarding of the contract taking place soon after.

Construction of the pumping station must be concluded within 12 months.

Side picture: A map showing the location of La Zurza wastewater treatment plant. (CREDIT: CAASD)