A regional overview of wastewater management and reuse in the Eastern Mediterranean Region World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Centre for Environmental Health Activities CEHA WHO-EM/CEH/139/E A regional overview of wastewater management and reuse in the Eastern Mediterranean Region World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Centre for Environmental Health Activities CEHA 2005 © World Health Organization 2005 All rights reserved. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Dotted lines on maps represent approximate border lines for which there may not yet be full agreement. The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers’ products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the World Health Organization in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. Errors and omissions excepted, the names of proprietary products are distinguished by initial capital letters. The World Health Organization does not warrant that the information contained in this publication is complete and correct and shall not be liable for any damages incurred as a result of its use. Publications of the World Health Organization can be obtained from Distribution and Sales, World Health Organization, Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, PO Box 7608, Nasr City, Cairo 11371, Egypt (tel: +202 670 2535, fax: +202 670 2492; email: [email protected]). Requests for permission to reproduce WHO EMRO publications, in part or in whole, or to translate them – whether for sale or for noncommercial distribution – should be addressed to the Regional Adviser, Health and Biomedical Information, at the above address (fax: +202 276 5400; email [email protected]). CONTENTS Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................4 1. Introduction....................................................................................................................................5 2. Demographic, geographic and economic indicators in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. .........6 3. Water supply and sanitation ...........................................................................................................9 3.1 Renewable water resources..................................................................................................9 3.2 Water supply coverage.......................................................................................................11 3.3 Sanitation coverage............................................................................................................13 4. Wastewater collection, treatment and reuse.................................................................................14 4.1 Individual countries ...........................................................................................................14 4.2 Regional profile .................................................................................................................54 5. Conclusions..................................................................................................................................58 6. Recommendations........................................................................................................................59 7. References....................................................................................................................................61 8. Bibliography ................................................................................................................................63 Acknowledgements The text of this publication was written and compiled by M Y Saidam. Acknowledgments are due to the authors of individual country reports that were crucial to its preparation: Seham M. H. Hendy, Ragaa G. Youssef (Egypt), Kifah K. Abdel-Rahman, Ali M. Saleh and Na’m Albert Jamil (Iraq), Mohammed Al-Najjar (Jordan), Bouchaïb El Hamouri (Morocco), Bashir El Hasan and Ibrahim Hussein (Sudan) and Fadhel Ghariani and Lotfi Helaoui (Tunisia). Appreciation and gratitude are sincerely expressed to Dr. Saqer Al-Salem, a CEHA advisor, who initiated this work, provided valuable reference material and reviewed the document with profound interest. 1. Introduction This publication is intended to delineate the status of wastewater management and reuse in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. It was prepared in response to a request by the Centre for Environmental Health Activities (CEHA) with the objective of compiling as much pertinent information and data as possible. Professional individuals submitted profiles of wastewater management and reuse in their respective countries. Country reports were presented for Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Tunisia, forming a foundation for the work. Information and data on other countries were included whenever possible, although the availability of such information was generally scarce, reflecting the lack of attention usually given to the wastewater sector in the majority of countries in the Region. A brief summary of the demographic, geographic and economic features of the Region has been presented to stress the influence of population dynamics on wastewater management and reuse. About half a billion people live in the Region and population growth rates are among the highest in the world. Increasing urbanization, incomes and populations are imposing strains on the environment and the finite natural resources, particularly freshwater. Economically there are great variations among countries; at one end of the spectrum there are the prosperous oil-producing countries with gross domestic product averages comparable to those in industrialized countries, and at the other end there are countries that may be considered amongst the poorest in the world, such as Afghanistan and Somalia. Such economic conditions can impose strong limitations on the ability of nations and individuals to provide for appropriate wastewater management. Most countries in the Region are classified as being semi-arid with dry and desert ecosystems. Average annual rainfall is so low that irrigation is necessary in the majority of countries of the Region. Consequently, freshwater availability is low with the average per capita share very much less than the world average. This makes water scarcity one of the most daunting challenges confronting the Region at present. The situation is likely to be exacerbated in the future if no drastic measures are taken to institute proper water supply and demand management practices. This indicates that in the national water budgets of these countries wastewater should be considered a resource rather than a waste. Furthermore, the objective of wastewater management in most countries should surpass the conventional aims of health and environmental protection; instead the aim should be to utilize treated effluents as a valuable resource that can augment national water resources. In the Region a relatively large number of people lack access to improved water supplies and there are even more without improved sanitation facilities. The number of people who gained access to these services during the last decade has generally been less than the increase in the number of the population in most countries. Normally, priority has been given to the provision of water supplies over sanitation. The situation is relatively much harder in the rural areas compared with the urban ones. Lack of such provision has been cited in many countries as the one major obstacle hindering effluent reuse potential. Overall sewerage coverage is modest in most countries of the Region due to the high costs involved. Poorly managed cesspools are the most common alternative for wastewater disposal. This has been a cause for concern as seepage from cesspools has contaminated scarce freshwater resources and created several negative health and environmental impacts. Moreover, reuse of water is a lost opportunity as wastewater is buried away in these pits so that the amount of wastewater collected and treated makes up a small percentage of the generated quantities, as do the reused amounts. Compared with agricultural withdrawals in the Region, water reuse quantities constitute very small percentages. 5 A Regional Overview of Wastewater Management and Reuse Wastewater management and reuse in Bahrain, Egypt, Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic and Tunisia are discussed in some detail. However, little relevant information could be found on the remaining countries. The report ends with a list of conclusions and recommendations deemed necessary to improve wastewater management and reuse in the Region. 2. Demographic, geographic and economic indicators in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. The population of the Eastern Mediterranean Region was estimated at 501 507 000 people in the year 2003, constituting about 8% of the total population of the world. The population growth rate for the area averaged at about 3.27% (2.73% if the population growth rate of the United Arab Emirates of 14.1%, is excluded), ranging from 1.1% in Tunisia