Eagle Beach – Aruba’s Eagle Beach resorts proudly share their picturesque neighborhood with the Bubali Water Treatment Plant. While at first this might seem like an inconvenience, in reality it only proves that Aruba is an island with a conscience.
Grey waters from high-rise hotel bathtubs and laundries are a valuable resource. Once treated, they serve to water the designer Robert Trent Jones golf course at Tierra del Sol. The spill off also sustains valuable wetlands where many species of migratory birds rest on their journey from the Northern hemisphere to warm lands.
The tall grass of the Bubali Bird Sanctuary remains green year round, thanks to the treatment plant, thus providing shelter to many breeding pairs of birds, visiting and indigenous. The good news is that the Bubali Water Treatment Plant has recently been upgraded and expanded. Formally, during certain busy times of the year the treatment plant encountered difficulties handling large amounts of waste water coming in via underground pipes in addition to the quantity of incoming water siphoned into its system by the island’s numerous dump trucks.
Â
Experts at the DOW, the Department of Public Works report that the current expansion of the Bubali Treatment Plant should guarantee its ability to handle all waste water for the coming 10 to 15 years. The plant’s extra capacity finally kicked in during the first weeks of April.
Additionally, the DOW experts explain that during the first weeks of May, another treatment plant was officially opened on the other side of the island at Parkietenbos. All dump trucks are now required to discharge their content at the new facility which instantly alleviated the pressure on the Bubali system.
The process of turning waste waters into safe grey water for irrigation is a biological one. It is natural, and occurs without interference as the incoming waste is steadily aerated. While very reliable, the process is also vulnerable to upset, when occasional dumping of fuel or oil occurs, resulting in offensive odors.
That dumping of anything but waste water into the Bubali Water Treatment Plant is now illegal here and strictly enforced. The treatment plant may only receive water and no other substances, not to interrupt the biological breakdown of materials.
In another innovative move, the leftover sludge from the process with offensive odor potential, left to naturally dry behind the plant is now being transported straight out of the process to the new plant.
Hoteliers on Eagle Beach report with great satisfaction that with the offensive factors eliminated, smells are completely and totally gone.
From the Aruba.com website:
Migratory birds, looking for lush vegetation in which to nest, find an oasis within the Bubali Bird Sanctuary. The nearby water treatment facility empties into two inter-connected man-made lakes, known as the large and small Bubali Bird Ponds. The area has become a resting and breeding area for more than 80 species of migratory
Birds that inhabit the sanctuary include herons, egrets, gulls, skimmers, coots, cormorants, numerous species of ducks and more. An observation tower has been erected to allow birdwatchers to get a true birds' eye view.
