The governorate-based national master plan for water supply & wastewater will be launched on 6 July 2009 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Cairo. The launch will be held under the auspices and addressed by H.E. Eng. Ahmed Amin El-Maghraby”, Minister of Housing, Utilities & Urban Development, H.E. Dr. Klaus Ebermann, Ambassador & Head of EC Delegation, and Dr. Abd El Kawy Khalifa, Chairman of the Holding Company for Water & Wastewater “HCWW”.
Iraq called on Turkey on Sunday [07 June 2009] to release more water down the Euphrates river, saying the country’s farms and drinking water supplies were at stake. Turkish authorities told a visiting Iraqi lawmaker last month they had boosted the flow of the Euphrates through Turkish dams upstream of Iraq to help farmers cope with drought. But Iraq’s Water Resources Minister Abdul Latif Rasheed told Turkey on Sunday [07 June 2009] nothing had been done, his ministry said. “The minister asked that the flow of water be increased by 500 cubic metres per second,” it said in a statement.
[...] Iraq accuses Turkey, and to a lesser extent Syria, of choking the Euphrates with hydroelectric dams that have restricted the flow, damaging the farm sector already suffering from decades of war, sanctions and neglect. The dispute is a delicate diplomatic issue for Iraq as it seeks to improve ties with its neighbours. Turkey is one of Iraq’s most important trading partners.
“We are passing through an emergency and the country is threatened with an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe,” said Karim al-Yaqubi, a member of a parliamentary committee that oversees water issues.
He said water purification plants in parts of the country like the province of Diwaniya, southeast of Baghdad, could not pump in water because it was too muddy. Yaqubi said Turkey had briefly increased the river flow to serve its hydroelectric operations, but had then closed the sluice gates. Farmers faced with the start of the planting season between the Tigris and Euphrates south of Baghdad were in dire trouble because they did not have enough water for irrigation, he added.
On Saturday [06 Jun 2009], farmers and fishermen demonstrated in the city of Najaf, waving leaflets that called on the government to demand Iraq’s neighbours release more water.
[...] Turkey had been expected to add 130 cubic metres per second of water to the flow down the Euphrates, taking the total flow to Iraq up to 360 cubic metres per second, from 230 cubic metres per second, officials said.
EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) calls on the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to replace the failed Joint Water Committee (JWC) with a new joint water management structure. FoEME calls on the Quartet led by the new Administration of US President Barak Obama to focus on the dire Palestinian water economy as a matter of urgency and help the parties replace the JWC with a new institution that empowers both sides as equal partners.
“It is time to replace the failed mechanism of the Joint Water Committee, established under Oslo, with an institution where Palestinians and Israelis are true partners in both water supply and management responsibilities,” said Nader Khateeb, Palestinian Director of Friends of the Earth Middle East.
As earlier reports of FoEME detailed and the latest World Bank report highlighted, the Joint Water Committee has failed the interests of both peoples, not providing the water quantities needed to Palestinians and not protecting shared Israeli/Palestinian water resources from large scale pollution.
“The irony is that due to the water crises, following 5 consecutive years of [drought], pollution largely from Palestinian sources poses an ever increasing threat to the declining shared water reserves,” said Gidon Bromberg, Israeli Director of Friends of the Earth Middle East. “A key problem with the JWC is that it has disempowered the Palestinians from being able to take responsibility for water management. The Palestinians receive so little of the shared water, that Israelis must ask themselves, what incentive do Palestinians have to protect shared water from pollution?” he added.
In 2008, FoEME released a Model Water Agreement that called for the replacement of the Joint Water Committee with a new body where equivalent powers and responsibilities would lie with both sides covering all shared water resources.
As the World Bank report highlights the present structure of the JWC gives virtual veto power just to the Israeli side on all shared water issues.
“After 15 years of JWC failure, the results have proven to be catastrophic. It’s urgent to free the water sector and water needs of both peoples from the conflict”, continued Nader Khateeb, FoEME Palestinian Director.
A Royal panel tasked with formulating a new JD5.86 billion [US$ 8.32 billion] water strategy on [12 May 2009] presented its final report to His Majesty King Abdullah, who gave the go-ahead for the implementation of the plan. The strategy entails a series of water megaprojects to meet the Kingdom’s needs.
[...] ["Water for Life: Jordan's Water Strategy 2008-2022"] seeks to achieve a set of objectives, including the provision of sufficient and safe drinking water, maximising the benefits of surface water and bringing an end to arbitrary pumping from underground wells, among others.
According to the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, the per capita water share in Jordan is estimated at 145 cubic metres annually, while the international water poverty line is 1,000 cubic metres per capita annually.
Prime Minister Nader Dahabi said the government would endeavour to implement the strategy, emphasising the government’s keenness to execute the Disi Water Conveyance Project as soon as possible, among other projects in the sector. The premier also pointed to the ongoing World Bank-funded environmental impact and feasibility studies on the Red-Dead Canal scheme.
Minister of Water and Irrigation Raed Abu Saud said the strategy entails a decreasing reliance on underground water from 32 per cent currently to 17 per cent by the end of the implementation period and an increased use of treated wastewater in agriculture from 10 per cent to 13 per cent. Dependence on water desalination projects will grow from 1 per cent presently to 31 per cent in 2022.
The plan cites a water deficit of 638 million cubic metres in 2007. The minister said better water management is the answer to this problem. Even when the Disi project is fully implemented, he told the meeting, the deficit will be about 503 million cubic metres in 2022. These figures highlight the vitality of implementing desalination projects under the Red-Dead project, he said.
It also entails reducing the percentage of water loss, said the minister, adding that the total cost of the strategy includes the government’s contribution to projects implemented by the private sector.
Abu Saud, who reviewed the strategy’s goals, said its implementation requires effective institutional reforms and using water resources competently. Institutional reforms of the water sector require enacting a new water law, separating operational from administrative work, and production from distribution operations, activating the role of the Water Council and creating a commission to regulate the sector, said the minister. Such reforms, he added, also require establishing a court for water issues and increasing reliance on ICT in the management of the sector.
A World Bank report blames Palestinian mismanagement and Israeli restrictions for severe water shortages in Palestinian areas. Palestinians get only a quarter of the water Israelis have access to. The existing problems effect not just daily supply but the development of water resources, water uses and wastewater management. ”Water related humanitarian crises are in fact chronic in Gaza and parts of the West Bank,” says the report.
For their water Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are completely dependant on scarce resources controlled by Israel. This has led to “systematic and severe constraints on Palestinian development of water resources”, says the report, despite the joint governance rules and water allocations established under the 1995 Oslo interim agreement.
But the Palestinian Authority (PA) too gets part of the blame. It is struggling to establish even a basic water infrastructure and management, concludes the report.
[...] Israeli officials said the report was “grossly misleading” as Israel has a much more developed industrial sector which could skew the assessment. But in Gaza 150,000 Palestinians have no access to tap water at all, a report in the Palestine Telegraph says.
According to the local utility provider, several wells have been destroyed during the Israeli offensive earlier this year. Since then only three out of 80 trucks with spare parts and pipes for the water system have been allowed to enter Gaza. As a result the severe damages to two wastewater treatment plants could not be repaired and continue to affect water quality.
“Dubai’s Ministry of Labour is investigating claims made in a BBC report that construction workers in the Emirate are being forced to live in inhumane conditions”.
“The recent BBC [Panorama] investigation found a lack of clean water and raw sewage in one camp, which housed 7,500 labourers in 1,248 rooms. [...] The BBC investigation was carried out by undercover Panorama reporter Ben Anderson, who [secretly] followed a group of [migrant] workers home from work”.
They were working on the development of the Jumeirah Golf Estates. The main developer, Leisurecorp “has attracted an incredible array of celebrities has attracted an incredible array of celebrities [...] including [TV cook] Jamie Oliver, [and golfers] Greg Norman, Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia”, BBC reports.
Speaking anonymously, one of the workers, employed by subcontactor Arabtec, told the BBC reporter: “The latrines are so filthy we cannot use them, we are so disgusted. The roads are full of garbage and waterlogged”. The reporter discovered that “sewage had leaked out all over the camp, and workers had to create a network of stepping stones to cross it and get back to their accommodation blocks. One toilet block had no water supply and the latrines were filled with piles of raw faeces”.
A month earlier Arabtec had been fined 10,000 dirhams, (US$ 2,700 = € 2,100) for allowing sewage to overflow into workers’ accommodation.
“Arabtec said it did not accept that there were unsanitary conditions at any of its camps’ toilets. It blamed the workers, saying, despite training, their “standards of cleanliness and hygiene are not up to your or our standards” and that the toilet block [the BBC] had filmed in may have been a block that was meant to be closed”.
“It now says it is concerned about the situation, and despite originally blaming the problems on a nearby sewage plant, admitted sewage in the camp was a constant problem it was battling to resolve. They said the camp was a temporary one and all workers will be moved out in eight months”.
“In a statement to Panorama, Jamie Oliver Enterprises said they were disturbed by the issues raised [in the programme, but that they] have been given further assurances that the claims made by employees working on a sub-developer’s project will be investigated.” BBC’s Panorama has been told that “Jamie Oliver now wants to come up with more accurate wording to describe his business relationship with Jumeirah Golf Estates. In the meantime, the celebrity chef’s name has been removed from the list of ambassadors on the company’s website”.
A kit designed to treat household waste water for reuse could be one of the ways to tackle water scarcity in rural areas of the Middle East and North Africa, according to a Canadian organisation.
“This is a household-based technology mainly for rural areas to treat grey water that comes from the kitchen sink and bath for re-use,” said Hammou Laamrani, project coordinator at the Regional Water Demand Initiative [WaDImena] of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), based in Canada.
[...] The kit consists of two large PVC barrels about 1.2m high, each able to contain up to 200 litres of water, pipes and sand. Before reaching the barrels, the waste water goes through a separate filter where things like small bits of food are removed. The barrels are filled with sand; there is an anaerobic digestion of the organic matter when the water goes through the sand filter and becomes cleaner.
“The quality of the treated water is improved chemically and biologically; it [the filter] removes the pathogens, particularly the E. coli that could pose a health risk. It also removes parasite eggs as they cannot go through the filter because the filter is a kind of a bio-membrane that removes all those things,” Laamrani explained.
[...] It has a socio-economic impact, it has a positive impact on the environment and it’s viable in terms of technology used,” Laamrani said.
Waste water treated by sand filter has very little nitrogen and potassium, and in terms of chemical pollution poses no risk for the soil, according to Laamrani. It is not a risk to soil because it does not have mineral components that can increase soil salinity and degradation, and it is not a risk to human beings in terms of exposure to pathogens, he said.
“It reduces the amount of water that goes into cesspits – sanitation in rural areas. So they don’t need to clean the cesspit so often – only once every three months, instead of once a week. This reduces the cost of emptying the cesspits,” he said.
“This water can also be used for productive purposes. It is used for the irrigation of saplings, particularly olive trees like we saw in Jordan… This water can also be reused in the household, like for flushing toilets,” he said.
However, it is not suitable for crops or vegetables consumed without cooking, like cucumbers and tomatoes, he said.
“The cost of the kit is $300-400, and in some cases even less depending on the price of components in any given market. If you take into account the productive use of the treated waste water and the reduced frequency of cesspit evacuation, outlay costs can be recouped in a year in places like Jordan and Lebanon,” the IDRC official said, adding that they also had projects in the occupied Palestinian territories and Yemen.
Maintenance is simple: sand in the barrels needs to be changed every 10-15 years, Laamrani said.
One of the drawbacks with the system initially was the smell: “There was no technology to remove the smell when the water was in the barrels. But it has been overcome with a new system that takes the gas out of the barrels… No longer is there a risk of attracting ants or other insects,” he said
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the International Water Association (IWA) signed an agreement at the Fifth World Water Forum [on 20 March 20009] to work together to increase access to clean drinking water and sanitation throughout the Middle East and Africa by strengthening water utilities and their regional associations. This partnership focuses specifically on access to clean drinking water and sanitation for the urban poor, water safety and quality management, leadership gaps and climate change.
[...] USAID and IWA will work to strengthen water utilities and their regional associations, such as the Arab Countries Water Utility Association (ACWUA) and African Water Association (AfWA), by:
Providing information and expertise on business planning and programs and services;
Brokering and facilitating global or regional Water Operator Partnerships, e.g. partnerships between mentor and recipient water operators;
Working together to create a regional Future Water Leaders program; and
Collaborating on and disseminating pertinent information such as reports, analyses, and resources.
IWA and USAID are working closely with ACWUA: IWA can provide resources and experts to build knowledge and capacity where needed within the association and individual utilities; USAID is providing strategic and expert resources to assist ACWUA in expanding its business plan for sustainability, supporting its knowledge management and communications strategy as well as facilitating the technical working groups on poverty orientation and utility management.
USAID and IWA will promote leadership strengthening for mid-level water and wastewater management professionals to build up the water and sanitation sector. USAID is promoting Middle East leadership in the sector by bringing twenty-five future leaders from nine Middle Eastern countries together to discuss issues that they will face as leaders in ten years time. IWA has a Young Professionals group and mentorship program that offers support and guidance. Both parties will collaborate on curriculum design and creating linkages among young professionals across countries and regions, as well as connections to senior mentors in order to build leadership capacity and networks in support of Future Water Leader career development.
Palestinian water law and policy expert, Dr. Fadia Daibes Murad, has died in a car crash on her way back from the Water Forum in Istanbul to Ramallah. “Fadia was an important defender of the water rights of Palestine women and men, so intelligent, and full of energy”, says Joke Muylwijk, Executive Director of the Gender and Water Alliance (GWA).
The Government of Japan, in partnership with the Palestinian Water Authority and the United Nations Development Programme/Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People signed a US$6.2 million agreement on Monday, 16th March 2009, to launch the cross boundary wastewater management project in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). [...] The project will include the construction of three wastewater collection systems in the Jenin, Tulkarem and Qalqylia Governorates [serving 16,500 people], in addition to building the capacities of the service providers and the Palestinian Water Authority regarding waste management issues. [...] This project [...] will also bring new jobs to the Qalqylia, Jenin, and Tulkarem areas and create a platform for cross boundary cooperation between Palestinian and Israeli municipalities on environmental problems.
[...] “The Palestinian Water Authority has put in place with the Israeli Authorities a coordination mechanism were the wastewater generated by these three governorates is treated by Israeli water systems inside the Green Line and are following up on it with the Joint Water Committee”. Said Mr. Ahmad Al Hindi, Director General of Water Council.
[A]pproximately 35% of the population of the West Bank has access to wastewater network collection systems and there are only three treatment plants located in the Ramallah, Jenin, and Tulkarem districts. Due to old existing collection systems, sewage leakage reaches up to 50% in the areas of Tulkarem and Qalqylia. Poor wastewater management and lack of infrastructure development are one of the leading causes for environmental pollution and degradation of natural resources in the oPt.
Rivers in some of the world's most populous regions are losing water, according to a new comprehensive study of global stream flow. The study, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), suggests that in many cases the reduced flows are associated with climate change. The process could potentially threaten future supplies […]
The technical and scientific Commission , held its session on the 27 - 28/6/2009 composed of high Responsibles in the Ministries of Water in the Arab Countries , in addition to the regional and International organizations concerned , and the Arab and African financial institutions , and the Civil Society Organizations in the Arab Countries . The Arab M […]
