Alleviating Water Scarcity in Rural Arid Areas through Grey Water Treatment and Reuse: Palestine as a Case Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12974/2311-8741.2018.06.3Keywords:
Greywater, Reuse, Palestine, Constructed wetland, Water Scarcity, Arid Areas.Abstract
Conventional water sources in Palestine are vulnerable and scarce. Among potential alternative non-conventional water sources is greywater which comprises 50–80% of residential wastewater. In this paper the long and short term impacts assessment of six onsite greywater treatment plants, GWTPs using constructed wetland technology was conducted. The constructed wetland system were constructed by National Agricultural Research Committees, NARC and International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, ICARDA in Northern West Bank to disseminate the safe uses of the treated greywater. Performance indicators were used for assessing the quality and efficiency of the execution of six treated greywater reuse stations in Jenin and Tubas governorates. Effluent from the six plants was reused in nine home gardens for fruit tree (citrus and olive) and fodder (sorghum) plantations. A field survey was designed and conducted for reuse beneficiaries. The short term indicator included greywater quality parameter before and after treatment during the period from June and July 2015. pH , TDS, Na+ ,Ca2+ ,Cl- ,BOD ,PO42+ and SO42-fall within the Palestinian standard for treated wastewater (2012). The average water quality was: pH 7.5, TDS 1024.27, Na 128.2, Ca 65.6, Cl 224, Mg 288.3,NO-3 77.8 and COD 400.8, BOD 178,PO4 7.69 and So4 139. The efficiency of total coliform and Ecoli removal efficiency was 33.3% and 37.3% in 2015 compared to 87 % and 55.3% in 2011. The efficiency of BOD was 70.8 in 2015 compared to 75.8 % in 2011. The decrease was 5%. The efficiency of EC was 9.8 % in 2015 compared to 27.3 % in 2011. The decrease in the efficiency with time was due to accumulation of solids in the constructed wetland. Soil pH and EC were 6.67 and 2.65. No heavy metal accumulation in soil was observed. Both grew water and soil analysis after five years of treatment remains within the accepted Palestinian reuse standards.
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