Welcome to the Institute for Water Studies

RESEARCH THEMES

Potentials of Wastewater Reuse in the Middle East and North Africa: Evidences from Jordan and Tunisia

Introduction

The crisis of water scarcity looming on the horizon threatens stability and security of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region that is home to 5% of the world's population. This region is the least endowed with fresh water resources on earth (less than 1%), consequently the driest in the world (Mubarak, 1998; Brooks, 1999; World Bank 1995, 1996, 2000). National, regional, and international efforts are convergent in searching alternative sources of water. Most attention was turned to desalination of salty water, inter-basin transfers by pipeline, and import of water by shipment. All of these options are technically feasible, but none is affordable or easy because they are capital and energy intensive, many have severe ecological impacts, and all are politically complex (Brooks et al., 1997; Brooks, 1999). Moreover, these options can solve the quantity dimension of the problem, but cannot prevent environmental pollution and risks to public health. The reuse of treated wastewater, especially in agriculture, is well recognized for addressing food and water security in the MENA (Shelef and Azov, 1996; do Monte, 1996; Ghezawi, 1997; Mubarak, 1998; Angelakis et al., 1999; Faruqui, 2000).

Agriculture occupies about 87% of the total water consumption in the region, while only quarter of the cultivated land is irrigated (World bank, 1996, 2000). Besides, the water tariffs for urban and industrial use are much higher that that in agriculture. Therefore, efforts must converge to enhance displacement of fresh water by reclaimed water. In other words, liberation of fresh water from the occupation of agriculture. Therefore, during the last two decades, many countries have principally recognized the importance of wastewater reuse as valuable resource of water, but yet few have met some acceptable results (Thanh and Visvanathan, 1991; Shelef and Azov, 1996; Angelakis et al., 1999; World Bank, 2000). In developing countries in general, reuse efforts are partly successful, and projects are unsustainable (Loetscher, 1999; Kalbermatten, 1999).

The most two critical requisites to the success of a reclamation project are availability of sanitation systems that collect and treat the wastewater, and securing users for the reclaimed water (Mills and Asano, 1996). In other words, illusive results will be inevitably met if any of these two requisites does not exist. Therefore, this research involves sanitation in the debate and deals with two issues (sanitation and reuse) as one integral package. The term reuse scheme that will be frequently used is defined here as the process in which wastewater is produced, collected, treated, transported, and used, in addition to crop marketing and consumption. Appropriateness of machine and performance of human are the two role players that determine the efficiency of a reuse scheme.

Effective implementation of reuse schemes depends on many factors: economic, financial, institutional, political, regulatory, socio-cultural and technical (Korf et al., 1996). If well conceived, these factors can bring wastewater reuse to the forefront in water resource planning, and can add new momentum to making reuse happen. This momentum will drive through in-depth assessment and better understanding of the incentives and constraints standing behind each of the aforementioned factors. This is the main objective of the study in order to provide guidelines and initiatives to decision-makers, planners, and other support agencies who converge to enhance a wider coverage of appropriate sanitation, protect the environment, and mitigate the water crisis.

Research Problem

Many research problems have to be inevitably considered due to the integrated nature and broadness of this research. The region is the least endowed with fresh water resources and the driest in the world. Population growth, rising living standards, and urbanization stress the available water resources. While only one quarter of the cultivated land is under irrigation, about 87% of the water withdrawn goes to irrigation, and only 13% to industrial and municipal uses, compared with 69% and 31%, respectively, worldwide (World Bank, 2000). Meanwhile, water tariffs for urban use are much higher than in agriculture (Brooks, 1999; Al-Hamdi, 2001). The MENA countries are the richest among the developing world. The World Bank records show that only 0.5% of the MENA population are under the line of poverty (living on less then 1 US$/day), while it reaches 24.3% and 43.5% in Africa and South Asia respectively (World Bank 2000b). Moreover, at least two-thirds of the population in developing countries do not have access to adequate sanitation services, while it is about one-third in the MENA (World bank, 1995, 2000; Kalbermatten, 1999; Loetscher, 1999).

In principle, most countries of the region (Israel, Tunisia, Jordan, Bahrain, Morocco, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Syria, Egypt, and Malta) have recognized the importance of wastewater reuse. So far, only Israel and Tunisia, and to a certain extent Jordan, already practice wastewater reuse as an integral component of their water resources management and environmental protection strategies. (Thanh and Visvanathan, 1991; do Monte et al., 1996; Angelakis et al., 1999; Faruqui et al., 2000). The rates of wastewater reuse in Israel and Tunisia (pioneer countries) are 24.4% and 15% of the total water supply respectively, but still low compared to the potential (Bahri and Brissaud, 1996; Shelef and Azov, 1996; Angelakis et al., 1999).

In conclusion, despite the high potential for wastewater reuse in agriculture in the MENA, the momentum for reuse is still inferior to anticipations. Sanitation and reuse projects are separately planned and implemented, too often based upon only technical and financial feasibility studies. Water tariffs and sanitation revenues do not cover, in most cases, even the operation and maintenance costs. Planners and decision-makers tend to rely on external funds discarding the local capabilities and the benefits and values of incentives that potentially influence the perceptions and decisions of the different stakeholders in the reuse scheme (Thanh & Visvanathan, 1991; Kalbermatten, 1999; World Bank, 1995, 2000; Faruqui, 2000). Last but not least, the existing standards and regulations constrain the reclaimed water to compete with fresh water, and consequently reuse-crops with fresh-water-crops.

Based on the above discussion and in accordance with the research problem, the following research question is developed:

Q. What incentives or disincentives enhance or abridge the momentum for wastewater reuse in the Middle East and North Africa Region?