The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has just recently won the Arab Ideas Award organized by the Dubai Quality Group in the 'Best Green Practices' category. RTA scooped the Award thanks to embracing the very best practices in recycling bus wash water at bus depots where water-recycling plants were constructed.

Abdullah Yousef Al Ali, CEO of RTA's Public Transport Agency, was pleased for winning the Award, which signals RTA's commitment to conserving energy & driving the green economy ideas through minimizing the effect of global warming& optimizing the use of water in cleaning buses at depots. He kept in mind that desalination plants were the source of water in the UAE. "Among the essential obstacles experienced were the huge amounts of water squandered in washing buses as well as the disposal of wastewater via tankers due to the lack of sewage networks in remote depots. To make sure a high level of bus tidiness, bus wash water recycling plants were established, which has actually added to decreasing water consumption by more than 90% as each bus previously used to need 200 liters for cleaning compared with 20 liters after using recycling stations," he described.

"We have more than 1,400 buses, each needs to be cleaned 10 times per month, making a total of 168,000 bus wash annually; a procedure that utilized to consume more than 35 million liters of water p.a., whereas now it just needs 7 million liters p.a.," included Al Ali.

"Winning the Arab Ideas Award culminates the efforts of the general public Transport Agency in charting out plans, and assembling expediency research studies focused on the latest practices of protecting the environment. RTA has actually got in place an extensive method and future plans for conserving energy and advancing the concept of green economy in a sustainable environment," concluded Al Ali.