Waste Water Treatment and Reuse in the Mediterranean Region

Research in and application of advanced wastewater treatment technologies in the Mediterranean Basin require public awareness of the need for sustainable water resources to be raised through local information programs. Since wastewater treatment and reuse systems are generally capital-intensive and require highly-paid specialized operators, this point must be given especial relevance when applying new techniques, such as membrane bioreactors, tertiary chemical oxidation processes, etc., in these countries. This chapter gives a general overview on research currently underway in the Mediterranean Basin countries on innovative technologies for wastewater treatment, and compares them to the conventional technologies currently employed in wastewater treatment plants. Moreover, not only water availability, but also water quality, is essential for human life, health and safety, especially if sanitary requirements are not met. A summary of disinfection applications and research activities under development in the South Mediterranean and Middle East Regions is presented.

Southern Mediterranean countries are characterized by severe water imbalance uneven rainfall and, at the same time, are unable to meet their food requirements using the available water resources. Treated and reused sewage water is becoming a common source for additional water. Some of these countries have included wastewater treatment and reuse in their water planning. This will narrow the gap between freshwater supply and demand in different water use sector. The urban areas of many Mediterranean countries are growing rapidly, and ecological sanitation systems must be implemented that are sustainable and have the ability to adapt and grow with the community’s sanitation needs, taking in consideration the social, economic, environmental, and institutional of the local conditions. Choosing an appropriate innovative treatment technology for Southern Mediterranean countries will include lagoons/wetlands, sand filter, and soil aquifer treatment. Within this framework, the main objective of this chapter is to demonstrate the appropriate technologies of wastewater treatment adapted to the Southern Mediterranean region.

Themes object of this chapter concern wastewater reuse in the Mediterranean region where the problem of water scarcity is continuously aggravating: while the renewable water resources decrease, the demand for potable water is increasing due to population growth and increasing economic activities. One of the most important future options for a sustainable management of water resources in the Mediterranean is the reuse of treated wastewater. Wastewater reuse management is one of the challenges that all Mediterranean countries will have to deal with in the coming decades. Therefore, these countries need water strategies that have to take into account alternative measures to cope with this situation. Wastewater reuse is one of the essential options for Mediterranean countries for the development of their national water policies and strategies.

The innovative approach is actually not a question any more of extracting waste to obtain reusable water, but of extracting reusable water for then using the value elements contained in “waste.” Therefore treated wastewater became a resource. Water extracted initially could be used at various applications, such as the irrigated agricultural, landscape irrigation or the production of drinking water, according to terms of references indicated by the end users.

The extraction of the value elements mainly relates to carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. The value of these elements lies mainly in the biopolymers and energy production, being used in particular for plastic manufacture, using carbon. The nitrogen or phosphorus could also be used like fertilizers. As for reusable water, the extraction of these various elements will have to follow terms of references fixed by the end users.

The remaining fraction, after extraction of reusable water and the value elements, is not very significant and will be the subject of a specialized treatment (Angelakis in Water Res 33(10):2201–2217, 1999).

This chapter will give a critical overview of new practices in the reuse treated wastewater and sludge in the Mediterranean.

Almost all over the world, the production of sewage sludge rises due to increased population, industrialization and urbanization. Treatment and disposal of sewage sludge is an expensive and environmentally challenging task, problems arising mainly from lack of social acceptability, high treatment costs, human and environmental health risks associated with treatment and lack of sustainable disposal options. Currently the most widely available and recommended option is land application of sewage sludge. It is also a growing problem worldwide since there is a special concern about organic contaminants and the discussion about potential standards.

The aim of this paper is to assess the challenges to planners and policy makers with regard to sludge management. Constantly increasing environmental concerns require to identify the occurrence, type and concentration of pollutant, assess treatment efficiencies of different treatment methods as provided in literature and to evaluate the existing sludge disposal options and propose a sustainable and safe option.

Different groups and levels of inorganic (heavy metals) and organic substances and the problems of pathogens in sludge are pointed out. The mere concentration of a potential health hazards does not give any information on the connected risk. The outcomes of different risk assessments for metals and organic contaminants are listed. As it will never be possible with single substance analyses to have sufficient information an alternative approach for effect monitoring is described.

Recycling and use of wastes are the preferred options for sustainable development, rather than incineration or land filling, but with sewage sludge this is not straight forward because of perceptions over inorganic and organic contaminants, pathogens and its fecal origin, particularly by the food retailers. For the assurance of public and environmental health, a quality system and standards for the treatment and the produce are recommended, which need to be accepted by all stakeholders as farmers, food retailers and public requirements.

The paper demonstrates that treated sewage sludge, which fulfils the quality requirements for heavy metals, organic compounds and pathogens, can be beneficially reused providing a land application of restricted amounts as a long-term sustainable waste management solution for sludge from municipal waste water treatment plants. In the future sludge management needs to be based on sustainability and beneficial reuse, and the treatment technology has to be effective and affordable. The treatment options have to be adapted to local situations to fit the socio-cultural framework, available technology and affordability as well as local climatic conditions. Therefore, it is recommended to include environmental, social, economic and technical analysis in the search for the most sustainable alternative for sludge disposal.

The scarcity of water and the need for protecting the environment and natural resources are the main factors leading countries in the Mediterranean region to introduce the reuse of treated wastewater as an additional water resource in their national plans of water resource management. In Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs), treatment and reuse of wastewater have already been applied to a certain extent, but there is still great scope for extending these practices.

This chapter aims to identify and discuss factors, which act as constraints to the broader application of treatment and reuse practices and technologies in MPCs. The report largely concentrates on the reuse of wastewater for the purpose of irrigation, which is the most common reuse activity in MPCs.

The key types of constraints reviewed in the report are the following: Financial constraints; Health impacts and environmental safety; Standards and regulations; Monitoring and evaluation; Technical constraints; Institutional set-up; Political commitment; and Public acceptance and awareness.

This chapter also illustrates how certain types of constraints have been recognized and dealt with in practice, by means of specific good practice examples from Tunisia (on national political commitment and farmer involvement), Jordan (on standards development and national political commitment) and Egypt (on grey water treatment in rural areas using low-cost systems).

Despite progress in some cases, further action and research is needed to address the factors currently limiting the application of these technologies in MPCs. The chapter thus puts forward a set of recommendations on priority actions and research needed. Priority recommendations concentrate on the aspects of financing and cost recovery, political commitment for treatment and reuse in the context of national water policies and ways of mitigating risks on public health and the environment.

The use of wastewater as a source of water is emerging as one of the most sustainable alternative in view of global water scarcity. A variety of risks and threats are impeded in the use of wastewater, especially those related to public health and environment. Environmental management tools have been developed and used in the water industry including the production of potable water or for wastewater treatment with the prime objective of maintaining sustainability and curbing any hazardous impact that might affect consumers and alleviating the environment burden involved in this industry. In addition, a set of sustainability indicators were developed to help gauging sustainability issues in the water industry. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) and risk assessment (RA) are among the early environmental tools employed in the water industry with wide implementation in wastewater facilities and technologies. Despite the numerous advantages EIA and RA have added to the concept of sustainability and human safety, some shortcomings were also apparent that needed an additional tool to help overcome such gaps. Life cycle analysis, an ISO guided step wise process, is considered the most holistic tool that would encounter all upstream and downstream impacts related to the industry. It also offers the prospects of mapping the energy and material flows as well as the resources of the total system. On the other side, LCA tend to require copious sets of information and data that can limit its use in developing countries where information shortage prevails. The present part is focused on highlighting some of the main features of environmental sustainability of the water industry, along with the main tools applied to help promoting sustainability. It also delineate on life cycle analysis as one of the most comprehensive guidelines used in water industry towards the ultimate goal of achieving sustainability.

The INNOVA-MED Coordination Action is an integrated group of 8 EC funded projects dealing with wastewater treatment and water management. Deliverable D.14 (this report) is under Workpackage 5, which is concerned with the “Integrated Management of Wastewaters in the Mediterranean Area.” This workpackage deals with different aspects of wastewater management and water resources management through assessing the technical, financial, socio-economic, institutional, and regulatory influences on integrated wastewater management. Expert group 5 was set up to provide an exchange of experience of project partners and contributing stakeholders, with the focus on:

This will ultimately lead to the formulation of suggested policies which may set the stage for the decentralization of authority, local participation, and infrastructural and capacity development.

This report (D14.Report of Expert Group 5) provides a final overview of management practices and recommendations based on national/sub-national policy. It will provide an identification of weakness in wastewater distribution, and further research needed.

Water scarcity in the Mediterranean region is one of the most serious issues. A number of reasons are behind this situation, which include, but are not restricted to, the relatively uneven distribution of precipitation, high temperatures, increased demands for irrigation water, and impacts of tourism. Climate change is expected to aggravate the situation even more. The use of wastewater is one of the most sustainable alternatives to cope with water shortage. It would have a number of advantages that include closing the gap between supply and demand, stopping the pollution of fresh water resources, providing sound solution to water scarcity and climate change, and helping to achieve Millennium Development Goals. With Egypt, trying to cope with water shortage issues, The Ministry of Water Resources, MWRI has developed a National Water Resources Plan, with wastewater reuse as a central mechanism. At present, there are more than 200 wastewater treatment plants in the country. Urban coverage of improved sanitation gradually increased from 45% in 1993 to 56% in 2004. In contrast, rural sanitation coverage remains incredibly low at 4%. The low coverage, in combination with a sub-optimal treatment, results in some problems of water pollution and degradation of health conditions because the majority of villages and rural areas discharge their raw domestic wastewater directly into the waterways. Drainage water reuse is practiced on a very large scale. The official reuse of agricultural drainage water in irrigation amounted to 4.84 km³/year in 2001. The present aim of the Government of Egypt is to reuse up to 8 km³/year in new reclamation areas in the near future. Meanwhile, El Salam canal, one of the mega projects in Egypt is transferring a mix of fresh Nile water and wastewater to Sinai, to irrigate thousands of newly reclaimed areas.

Tunisia is one of the developing countries that have developed the use of treated wastewater in irrigated agriculture for more than 30 years. Increase in water demand, as a result of population growth and development plans, is posing serious threats on the existing conventional water resources, including drought impact and stressed water supply with deterioration of water quality. The agricultural sector remains the highest conventional water user with more than 83% consumption. Practically, treated wastewater provides an alternative source of water that can fill an important gap in water deficit for agricultural production and other uses. It represents a strategic option to achieve a higher level of water supply for agriculture and food production and will alleviate the pressure on conventional water resources (Agodzo et al., Use of treated wastewater for irrigation in agriculture: Proposal for a comparative study of Bolivia, Ghana and Tunisia. Wageningen, The Netherlands, 2001).

In 2007, this study was done in the Cap Bon region in the north of Tunisia where most of the TWW reuse was in the irrigated agriculture. There is a high competition between water users’ sectors: agriculture, industry, and tourism. This chapter focuses mainly on the evaluation of the regional experience by highlighting the farmers’ acceptance and perception of treated wastewater for irrigated agriculture.

In this irrigated area, 100 farmers were interviewed and their farms were visited for observation during the irrigation period. All the farmers were using traditional irrigation method; surface irrigation that leads to considerable loss of water.

This study aims to understand and find out the barriers of the use of treated wastewater in this region considering the high volume of treated wastewater discharged to the sea.

In this region, farmers still confronted more water-scarcity problem. Treated wastewater reuse is common since 1979 because of the increasing water demand, the succession of dry season (more than 5 years of drought), and the increasing aquifer salinity.

In spite of this situation, farmers’ reluctance to treated wastewater reuse is still presenting a very serious problem. The interesting observation made in this study is that, farmers lack information and knowledge about the need for safe and optimal reuse of this water resource.

During the study of the farming practices, 80% of the farmers said that they are not informed about water quality and 42% said that they are not informed about how to use treated wastewater. Most of them mentioned that they are only informed about the prevention methods such as wearing special shoes and vaccination, about which they were not much interested. Hence, farmers’ practices are mainly based on their own experiences, personal perceptions, and points of view.

The key issue here is the emphasis on information and education programs with demonstration areas for any TWW reuse to preserve practitioners’ health and environment contamination.

The Palestinian wastewater treatment sector in Palestine is manifested by inadequate management due to insufficient infrastructure, unsafe disposal of untreated or partially treated effluent and unplanned use of low water quality. The current wastewater treatment plants, established during 1970–1980 under the Israeli occupation, are overloaded and badly maintained with aging equipment, thus posing serious environmental and public health hazards. The challenges behind this unsustainable wastewater sector are exacerbated by the lack of institutional coordination reflected by multiple stakeholder involvement leading to institutional fragmentation and lack of coordination. By law, the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) is responsible for all regulatory, planning, monitoring, research, and training functions. Despite the current valid Palestinian effluent quality standards, urgent efforts pertaining to effluent monitoring and regulations enforcement are needed. To promote feasible wastewater treatment facilities (WWTFs) crucial strategic regulatory and planning policies were stipulated. Wastewater should be collected, treated, and reused where feasible and the design of WWTFs should be modular and community-based with effluent use options. The institutional capacity for implementing and enforcement of water-related rules and regulations should be enhanced. WWTFs including reuse schemes form a key element of an integrated water management strategy with coordinated institutional cooperation. The PWA is committed to sanitation services enhancement in the Palestinian communities to protect public health and the aquatic environment, where the reclaimed effluent must be used for various applications. Effluent reuse practices protect not only the limited water resources, but also enrich the quality and quantity of groundwater and the receiving water bodies; groundwater and surface water.

The countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea are under a constant threat of water scarcity due to both natural and anthropogenic factor including highly uneven temporal and spatial distribution of precipitations, growing populations, increasing water demand particularly for agriculture, and the widespread contamination of water resources by a plethora of organic and inorganic contaminants. Unlike most northern European countries with their more temperate and humid climate, in Mediterranean countries a sustainable management of water resources is of vital importance. Wastewater reuse strategies aim at saving valuable freshwater resources and are attractive for a number of applications such as irrigation, increase of the flow of drought-impacted rivers, and artificial groundwater recharge. As an example of the reuse of tertiary treated wastewater, a study was conducted on the impact of its discharge on the loads of emerging pollutants in the lower stretch of the Llobregat River located in the vicinity of the town of Barcelona (NE Spain). The samples were collected in fall of 2008, during a severe drought that took place during the years 2007–2008 in the region. The relative contribution to the loads of the different emerging contaminants of the river upstream and the tertiary treated sewage discharge were estimated based on their respective concentrations and flows. Whereas the contribution of the effluents dominated in case of estrogens, river water from the upstream sampling station did so for alkylphenols. Due to their heterogeneous character, the other contaminant families showed a compound-dependent behavior. The calculated loads served to provide an estimate of the overall bulk quantities of the different compounds and families, showing the following rank order: pharmaceuticals > alkylphenols > pesticides > illicit drugs >> estrogens.

The chapter brings a brief overview of problems related to the sustainable water management in the Mediterranean area. It discusses some essential issues, such as (1) working for a culture of water saving, (2) institutional building, and (3) socioeconomic constraints related to the reuse of treated sewage waters outlining short- and long-term actions in several priority areas (drinking water treatment, wastewater treatment, reuse of wastewater, and reuse of sewage sludge).