Palestinian Water Authority Palestinian National Authority The Gaza Emergency Technical Assistance Programme (GETAP) on Water Supply to the Gaza Strip Component 1 – The Comparative Study of Options for an Additional Supply of Water for the Gaza Strip (CSO-G) The Updated Final Report [Report 7 of the CSO-G], 31 July 2011 Phillips Robinson & Associates Windhoek, Namibia P The CSO-G: Report 7 – The Updated Final Report TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary i-ii 1. Introduction 1 2. The Water Sector in Gaza 3 2.1 The Current Problems 3 2.2 The Status Quo as an Option 9 2.3 Gaza in the Future 9 3. Developing and Screening the Options 12 3.1 Developing the Options 12 3.2 Screening the Options 12 3.3 Water Demand Management 15 3.4 Wastewater Reuse 16 3.5 The Transfer of Water within Palestine 16 3.6 Transfers of Water from Israel 17 3.7 Transfers of Water from Turkey 18 3.8 Transfers of Natural Waters from Elsewhere 19 3.9 Desalination 20 4. The Rolling Programme of Interventions 24 4.1 The Available Options in the Status Quo 24 4.2 Integrating the Options into a Coherent Programme 27 4.3 The Estimated Costs of the Interventions 42 5. The Side-lined Options 46 5.1 High-Volume Transfers from Israel 46 5.2 High-Volume Transfers from Turkey 49 5.3 Desalination Shared with Egypt 49 5.4 Other Options and Sub-options 50 6. Additional Matters of Relevance 51 6.1 Practical Difficulties 51 6.2 Legal Issues 52 6.3 The Affordability and Willingness to Pay for Water in Gaza 57 6.4 Requirements for Electrical Energy 61 7. Conclusions and Recommendations 63 8. References 66 Annex 1 The Terms of Reference for the CSO-G Annex 2 Wastewater Treatment and Wastewater Reuse in Gaza List of Abbreviations BOO Build-Own-Operate BOT Build-Operate-Transfer CAB Coastal Aquifer Basin CBT Covered By Tariffs CMWU Coastal Municipalities Water Utility CSO-G Comparative Study of Options – Gaza EAB Eastern Aquifer Basin ESIA Environmental & Social Impact Assessment FS Feasibility Study GDP Gross Domestic Product GETAP Gaza Emergency Technical Assistance Programme GoI Government of Israel GPCU Gaza Programme Coordination Unit IPCRI Israeli/Palestinian Center for Research & Information IWA Israeli Water Authority JR Jordan River m3 Cubic metres MCM Million Cubic Metres NEAB North-Eastern Aquifer Basin NGEST North Gaza Emergency Sewage Treatment NIS New Israeli Shekels NSC North-South Carrier NSU Negotiations Support Unit OQR Office of the Quartet Representative PENRA Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority PHG Palestinian Hydrology Group PLO Palestine Liberation Organization PNA Palestinian National Authority PWA Palestinian Water Authority STLV Short-Term Low-Volume [desalination] TECC Technical Engineering and Consulting Company TPAT Technical, Planning and Advisory Team UfW Unaccounted for Water UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNEP United Nations Environment Programme US AID United States Agency for International Development US EPA United States Environment Protection Agency USA United States of America US$ United States Dollars WAB Western Aquifer Basin WDM Water Demand Management WHO World Health Organization Acknowledgements The project team wishes to acknowledge inputs from a number of individuals and organisations. First and foremost, we thank our counterparts and friends in Gaza for their help and support.... Rebhi Al-Sheikh, Ahmad Yakubi, Sadi Ali, Monther Shoblak, and many others. Our colleagues in TECC in Gaza – Samir Manneh and Marwan Bardawil – must also be cited here, for their exceptionally strong and timely technical assistance. Many others in Gaza helped the project team, and we are grateful for all of your input—and indeed, your perseverance in highly difficult circumstances. In the West Bank, we pay tribute to Dr. Shaddad Attili, who is in the process of transforming the water sector in Palestine. Michael Talhami, who assisted Dr. Attili on a day-to-day basis during the project period, was of exceptional importance to this project. We also wish to acknowledge the finance provided by the Government of Norway for this study – and for other important interventions in the water sector in Palestine. We believe that the problems in Gaza are not intractable. We trust that this report contributes to their solution. The water sector in Palestine – and especially in Gaza – is no place for the faint-hearted. However, the following is noted: “You never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.” [Mahatma Gandi] “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead, where there is no path.... and leave a trail.” [Author unrecorded] The CSO-G project team seeks to ‘take action’, and leave a trail. We hope and trust that others will follow the trail, should it be sufficiently well-beaten. Dr. Dave Phillips, Team Leader, CSO-G Executive Summary This report addresses the water sector in Gaza, Palestine, with a primary focus on issues at the strategic level pertaining to water supply. This represents the first component of the Gaza Emergency Technical Assistance Programme (GETAP), and is known as the Comparative Study of Options for an Additional Supply of Water for the Gaza Strip, or the CSO-G in acronym. This Updated Final Report for the CSO-G has been produced very rapidly by virtue of a heavily fast-tracked programme of work, and was released on 31 July 2011, less than six months after the project was initially triggered. The pace of the project as a whole reflects the perceived urgency for interventions in Gaza. The CSO-G project is supported by financing from the Government of Norway, and the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) is the primary counterpart. The CSO-G project team has met with most or all of the key players of relevance to the water sector in Gaza, and has reached a range of conclusions as to the required future interventions in the sector, which are reported here. The first conclusion pertains to the existing situation in relation to water supply in Gaza, and the project team has altogether rejected the continuation of the status quo as an acceptable option. This reflects the fact that the groundwater – the main source of fresh water in Gaza at the present time – is being massively over-pumped currently and the aquifer is showing clear signs of imminent failure or collapse, with rapidly advancing saline intrusion. Severe contamination (mainly from wastewaters) is also evident, and almost none of the groundwater meets internationally accepted guidelines for use as a domestic supply. The population of approximately 1.6 million Palestinians in Gaza is therefore exposed to very high levels of risk, and the treatment of the water is too expensive for many of the inhabitants. Even where the groundwater is treated, the resulting water is often contaminated, and high levels of water-borne disease continue to be prevalent amongst the Gaza population. Having rejected the maintenance of the status quo as an acceptable scenario, the CSO-G project team considered a range of potential options for the supply of water to Gaza in the future. The options listed in the Terms of Reference (see Annex 1 ) were expanded, and nuance was added by separating certain of the options into sub-options. The resulting possibilities for future water supply (for various uses) were then screened against four criteria, these being political; technical; social; and economic. A number of the options and sub-options failed against one or more of these four criteria, and the reasons for this are enumerated in the present report. The options that failed on one or more of the criteria were ‘side-lined’ for use in the near-term, but were addressed once again at a later stage of the procedure (see below). The options and sub-options that survived the screening procedure were addressed by the CSO-G project team in detail, and were sorted into a set of interventions that can be introduced in the current scenario in Gaza. A rolling schedule of interventions was then produced, this involving nine projects that are inter-linked and in combination form a coherent programme to address the critical issues in the water sector in Gaza. The nine interventions are summarized as follows: • The establishment of a Gaza Programme Coordination Unit (GPCU), this being required to drive and coordinate the proposed CSO-G interventions as a whole. • The introduction of an integrated water and health monitoring project, this to ensure that comprehensive and fully reliable data are available to act as a driver for the desired future changes in the sector, and also to monitor the success of the entire programme of interventions. • The accelerated upgrading and/or reprovision of the domestic water distribution and supply network in Gaza, this being the subject of specific parallel work that was undertaken by the Technical Engineering and Consulting Company (TECC) in Gaza, linked back to and closely coordinated with the CSO-G effort. • Enhanced levels of water imports from Israel to Gaza, in relatively small volume. This matter is currently the subject of ongoing negotiations between Palestine and Israel, being facilitated by representatives of the Norwegian and American Governments. The CSO-G: Executive Summary. Page i of ii • The introduction of short-term low-volume (STLV) desalination of sea water in Gaza, to provide relatively minor volumes of water of acceptable quality for domestic use in the early years of the CSO-G programme, and to ensure that public health may be protected. The use of brackish water as a possible feedstock for the STLV desalination facilities was considered, but was concluded not to be preferred, due to the urgent need to reduce the abstraction of groundwater and attempt to protect the aquifer.