Wastewater management for small communities in Palestine.

Abstract

Small Palestinian rural communities, in which about 60% of the total population in Palestine are living, face a variety of environmental infrastructure and public health issues. One of the urgent issues is the provision of safe drinking water and reliable wastewater collection and treatment facilities. The purpose of this paper is to assess the present status of wastewater management in rural Palestinian communities. Great emphases has been made on the historical development, key issues for wastewater management policies and strategies to be implemented. Also lessons and recommendations gained from pilot projects and case studies implemented by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), like the Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG) are presented. Several rural sanitation projects were assessed and small onsite sewage treatment plants were visited and evaluated, personal contacts to many NGOs and review of published reports of Palestinian institutions, donors and funding agencies, and UNDP and DFID were made. It was found that major sanitation problems are due to the weak economy and low income, low level of technical operating expertise and very limited access to the existing advance wastewater treatment technologies. Overloaded urban old sewage works were implemented to serve Israeli environmental policy and not to preserve the natural resources and for the protection of the aquatic environment and public health. Also the planned and newly erected urban sewage works were donor influenced and initiated. It was found that PHG acts as a catalyst to promote sustainable sanitation facilities in the poor rural Palestine. In many cases, traditional wastewater treatment strategies are inappropriate for the physical and economic characteristics of the small communities. Hence, non-point pollution, caused by direct discharges from rural communities can be significantly reduced by the promotion of onsite low cost treatment systems.