Social responsibility

DAMIETTA GREEN EXPANSION

Damietta Ports Authority (DPA) has announced a new US$78.9 million contract for the deepening and development of the port’s sea lane, writes Shem Oirere

The project is part of the incomplete fi ve-year development plan for the port which was initially dueto end in 2017.

DPA awarded UAE-based National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC) a 17-month contract that entails dredging of the sea lane, port basins and circulation basin of the Damietta Port.

Bigger ships

This new contract to NMDC marks the second phase of the Damietta Port deepening programme that could push its draft to 18 metres with capacity to accommodate even bigger cargo vessels.

For example, the port was previously able to accommodate the first huge container vessel, the 2006-built and France flagged CMA RIGOLITTO that required a draft of 14.5 metres and length of 350 metres after the first phase of Damietta port’s expansion.

The most recent completed deepening works was in February 2016 that pushed the port’s draft to 16 metres, with safe navigational depth at 14.5 metres and turning basin depth of 15 metres.

Although technical details on the dredging are yet to be confirmed, it is expected the dredged material will be used for soil improvement and design works at the port that is located on the Egyptian Mediterranean coast, about 9km from Damietta city.

This new endeavour to modernise Damietta port is in response to the increasing export cargo especially agricultural products, fertilizers and furniture, and also import cargo such as petrochemicals, cement, grains and flour.

Greater effi ciency

Damietta port’s potential cargo demand is estimated at 4.5 million teu, which once achieved, would make the gateway one of the largest transshipment hubs along the Mediterranean and the only one capable of handling the new generation of large containerships according to a previous report by the African Development Bank.

Furthermore, deepening and development of Damietta port’s sea lane is expected to improve port efficiency, hence reduce vessels’ turnaround time in port and support increase ships’ energy efficiency.

In 2019, DPA announced the completion of a new multipurpose terminal at Damietta Port under the supervision of Egypt’s Armed Forces Engineering Authority. The terminal is 630 metres long with a 17 metres deep berth supported by a backyard area of 50,000m² enabling DPA to handle more than four million tonnes of cargo annually.

Land reclamation

The latest DPA contract award to NMDC, which was announced in August 2015 by the company NMDC chief executive officer Mr Yasser Nassr Zaghloul, is the second one in Egypt for the UAE listed marine contractor after the 2020 award of the US$163.36 million contract for the expansion of Lake Manzala in northeastern of the North Africa country.

Dredging of the Lake Manzala would among other achievements, remove contaminated sediments from the lake, improve water quality and restore the health of the lake’s aquatic ecosystem.

NMDC is undertaking the lake’s dredging with Al-Tahadi Egyptian-Emirati Co. with a completion date of 2023 raising the prospects to mitigating the adverse changes to the lake, one of the largest on the Nile Delta.

According to NMDC the changes observed at the lake “occurred due to regulation of freshwater inflows, land reclamation and increasing loads of Biochemical Oxygen Demand and nutrients that are particularly associated with polluted drains flowing into the lake.”

Photo: DPA 8 Damietta Port is

expanding keeping sustainability in mind