Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Kuwait: Swimming in Sewage

Ever wondered what you might be swimming in? Ever notice those big pipes that empty into the Gulf?

Does your neighborhood smell like shit all of a sudden? Wonder why?

NOW you have your answer....


Al-Watan, KUWAIT: A looming disaster of a great magnitude is about to strike the Gulf (Jon AlـKuwait), which has been receiving unprocessed sewage from the Mishref pumping station. The station is being operated with just three pumps as 13 pumps are out of service due to the unprecedented pollution with the sewage level rising to such a dangerous level that it could have caused the explosion at the station. In the face of this, the Ministry of Public Works has no option but to divert the sewage to the sea through the rain drainage networks. The ministry, later on, announced that the station had collapsed completely and that it was being fixed.Sources close to the ministry intimated that the repair process will not be completed for another two months at least during which time the sewage from all areas will be diverted to the sea, adding that the station can only pump 340,000 liters during peak hours. The sources went on to warn that the mishap will equally affect the sewage distillation station in Sulaibiya.The sources further attributed this problem to indecisiveness on the part of the concerned officials to fix the mishaps since months, which added pressure on the three functioning pumps.

---

Swine flu? Who cares? Rain drainage networks are all over Kuwait and soon - whatever everybody else in Kuwait has, you'll have too! Breathe deeply Kuwait. Yummmmm

Kuwait, "indecisive"? Really?

4 comments:

daggero said...

D Girl ;

the other day the minister of public works officially opened a nice walkway in Rumythia area , is it the same area that you blogged about when they removed all the trees before you went on your vacation

don_veto said...

What can I say other than, we are in deep shit.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to break it to you but they have been doing this for YEARS and YEARS and YEARS!!!

Gail

Desert Girl said...

Daggero - Yes thanks for the comment. I went on vacation (after complaining about the trees) and the walkway was almost complete! I've been going out there in the evenings now.

Gail - I know, but I love the shock value for newcomers to Kuwait. I wrote scripts for a documentary about the fish kill in 2001. The government seems to believe that it was a 1-time incident. It WILL happen again because they continue to dump not only sewage, but the contents of container ships from all over the world (toxic waste,etc), allow industrial run-off into drainage systems, etc. I would never ever ever ever ever even put my toes in the water in the Kuwait Bay, and yet, I see people fishing off the sewage outlets all the time. FECES - it's what's for dinner! LOL