The Pearl-Qatar

One of the largest urban developments in Qatar, The Pearl-Qatar is achieving international recognition as the Middle East’s most prestigious and glamorous location, renowned for excellence in design and construction. With an area of 4 million sq m and a 32km coastline, this reclaimed island has been developed with funds in excess of QR 50 billion ($14bn). It is at once a residential destination and luxury resort, shaped by the vision to create an asset and a way of life with lasting quality and value: a jewel at the heart of the Gulf.

The first development in Qatar to offer freehold and residential rights to the international community, The Pearl-Qatar continues to attract unprecedented interest from buyers and investors in more than 52 countries.

On completion in 2012, it will accommodate more than 41,000 residents in 15,000 dwellings divided between 10 distinctive precincts. In and around them, exquisitely landscaped parks, state-of-the-art marinas and pristine beaches will vie with a captivating world of upscale shopping, dining and leisure opportunities to bring each unique neighbourhood to vibrant life. The Pearl-Qatar is owned and developed by
United Development Company

, one of Qatar’s leading public shareholding companies.

Dredging to create artificial islands is known to be very environmentally damaging. What measures were taken when creating The Pearl-Qatar to minimise this damage?

The Pearl Qatar did not use techniques which have been used elsewhere in the Gulf to reclaim land. Elsewhere, dredging spoil has been sprayed into place using the so-called “rainbowing” technique. Whilst this undoubtedly creates new land, the run off from the process is known to blight the seabed for kilometres around the operation. The Pearl-Qatar did it differently. We built a coffer dam (or bund) round the whole development. This ensured that all dredging run off was captured. Most infill was then taken from within the bunded area. Some dredging had to be done outside the bunded area, but it was done with great care.

We have re-examined these areas and discovered that the once disturbed sea grass beds are now between 60 percent and 90 percent re-vegetated.

United Development Company

is heavily involved in land reclamation and construction by the sea. What is the company doing to minimise its ecological/environmental impact?

When you pile 16 million cubic metres of fill into the sea, it is certain you are going to change the environment.

The area which was to become The Pearl-Qatar was a sub-littoral mud flat inhabited by sea grasses, seaweeds, sponges, shrimps, worms, shellfish and snails. It has been replaced by a habitat consisting of 10km of rip-rap revetment 28km of sandy beaches and 19km of seawalls. The old inhabitants have moved back in, but they have been joined by black spot snapper, two-bar sea bream, one spot sea bream, blue crabs, pen mussels, spot back herring, and many more sessile species.

The sea life is now so abundant that fish populations are about 2 ½ times greater than on a nearby natural reef.

We have thousands of workers on the island employed by hundreds of contractors. We are working closely with the HSE representatives of each of these companies to ensure their workers know what they have to do to protect the environment on The Pearl-Qatar. We have created training material for these companies, and run company-wide environmental induction programmes. We are currently running a waste recycling programme for the
United Development Company

office staff on the island. In addition to all this, we are mounting an extensive monitoring programme.

We monitor noise, dust, exhaust fumes and the quality of the water surrounding our island. Twice a year we conduct full ecological surveys in the marine environs and test the water quality every two weeks. We also use satellite imagery to ensure we have no coastal erosion problems.

What “green” projects will be implemented at The Pearl-Qatar?

The Pearl-Qatar will itself be a living example of environmental initiatives. The design specifications for the buildings contain results from a study commissioned from the Centre for Research into the built environment. This will make them energy efficient.

Can you tell us about the waste management on The Pearl-Qatar?

Domestic waste is managed by the Envac vacuum waste disposal system. The whole island is interconnected with 500mm diameter pipes, connected to disposal points in buildings and on sidewalks. Bagged waste is deposited in the disposal point, which is then sucked away to a central collection plant. Here it is compacted and trucked away to the municipal facilities. Bulk waste will be handled in a conventional manner. Waste will be segregated at source, and collected at a waste transfer station. Paper and card, plastic, cans, and used cooking oil will be sent for recycling. The remainder will go to the municipal facilities. However, hazardous wastes will be handled individually.

All wastes, whether Envac, or conventional will be handled in enclosed systems. This stops the waste being blown away by the wind, or disturbed by feral animals.

The state philosophy on waste segregation is that it will be conducted post collection, and our system caters for this. However, should the state ever change to pre-collection segregation, it is just a simple modification to allow our system to do this too.

What are the project’s energy-efficient district cooling systems?

Our district cooling system means that there will be few if any conventional ACs on the island. This is much more energy efficient, and there is less danger of refrigerant gases escaping and adding to the greenhouse gas and ozone depleting gas inventory of the world’s atmosphere. Air conditioning on the island is supplied by Qatar Cool — a district cooling company. This distributes chilled water to all buildings via insulated pipes. The water is cooled in a central plant, which is much more energy efficient than conventional air conditioners.