Hubei company helps slake soccer fans' thirst in Qatar

Qatar is the smallest nation to ever host the FIFA World Cup, and also the most arid among previous host states.

As an estimated 1.2 million soccer fans, which is equivalent to nearly half of Qatar's population, swarm into the country where gasoline is cheaper than water, water supply in the nation is seemingly under great pressure.

But a giant water storage facility, portions of which were constructed by a Chinese company, has greatly addressed the problem.

Consisting of 15 huge water storage tanks each with a capacity of roughly 500,000 cubic meters, the facility — when full of water — is capable of providing all the daily water needs for 2 million people for seven days. And two of the tanks were built by Energy China's Gezhouba Group from Hubei province, said Zhang Lei, a designer with the group.

With construction having begun in 2015, the project was launched to increase the Arab country's storage capacity of drinking water and provide clean water for FIFA World Cup 2022, Zhang told Hubei Daily, the official newspaper of the Hubei provincial government.

Covering an area of 45,750 square meters, which is roughly the size of seven soccer pitches, each of the tanks is about 11.3 meters in height, he said.

Arriving in Doha in 2017 for the project, Zhang soon became keenly aware of the water scarcity in the country.

"When I first arrived in Doha, I felt it was a city erupting in a vast desert. It has a bustling downtown but with only sand and stones, its outskirts looked desolate," he recalled.

There was a big water bucket at the door of every one of their makeshift apartments outside the urban center of Doha. Each morning, workers would fill the bucket with water transported by trucks from dozens of kilometers away, he said.

Zhang said he and his colleagues had to address many challenges to guarantee that the huge project was completed on time, considering the differences in construction standards between Qatar and China.

The construction market in the Middle East is well noted for its high standards and strict rules. The designs of the project involve many different subsectors in the construction field such as civil engineering, structure, pipelines and decor, he said.

As designers, Zhang and his colleagues not only had to learn local norms and standards in a thorough manner, but also had to coordinate designs for these different subsectors.

He said they had gone through countless consultations to ensure their designs met Qatari standards.

Zhao Heng, head of the design team for the project, said her team had to work very efficiently to ensure that the design work met construction needs in a timely manner.

Construction workers labored two shifts around the clock. "Designers had to closely follow the construction process to provide blueprints and related services. Quite often, we needed to go through the process of designing, handing in blueprints and reviewing — all within a single week," she said.

Thanks to their efforts, the two huge tanks were completed in July 2019 and began operating in February and July of 2020.

As the soccer tournament continues, Zhang has been asked by many of his friends and relatives if he did go to Doha to participate in the construction of the massive water storage tanks.

"I am very proud that I have participated in such a remarkable project," he said.