Water treatment technology showcased

ConocoPhillips, an international and integrated energy company based in the US has created an ‘innovative display’ that caught the visitors’ attention for its innovative design and content, as it reflects the work of one of the company’s major ventures in support and service of the environment, the Global Water Sustainability Center (GWSC).

GWSC is a collaborative effort between ConocoPhillips & General Electric Water Technologies, located at the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP) for the development of innovative, more efficient and cost-effective technologies for the treatment of petroleum by-product water.

The ConocoPhillips displayed also a children’s play area, a plantation area, a marina and desert life area, a cultural area, food outlets as well as school performances throughout the event. The display carried four story boards to explain the global and local water resources, desalination, formation water, reclaimed water and showcase the activities of GWSC/COP.

Dr Adham, GWSC managing director said, “Qatar has very limited ground water and rainfall but has abundant sea water. Hence 99% of Qatar’s household water comes from seawater desalination plants which remove salt & impurities from sea-water resulting in clean, fresh water that is safe for drinking as well as for use in construction, hospitals, factories, irrigation, lawns and landscaping.”

The collected “produced water,” is usually highly saline and may contain hydrocarbons, minerals or metals rendering it impossible to use without treatment.

“Managing the treatment and disposal of the “produced water” is a challenge for our industry,” explained Dr Adham.

Source:aeCERT, April 3, 2011

Bahrain: Residents cry foul over pipe burst

Residents of Manama, are complaining of an unbearable smell due to a burst sewerage water pipe for the last three days. 

They say the area is so full of the foul-smelling water that many of residents have no choice but to plod across it to reach their homes or even enter shops. 

One resident claimed several complaints to the authorities had gone unanswered.

“When we complain to the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA), they tell us to go to the Works Ministry, and when we go there, they say go to the EWA,” said Saji Abraham. 

“Some people have come and had a look and told us they will fix the leak, but nothing seems to be happening.”

A Works Ministry official said they were aware of the problem and were trying to fix it as soon as possible. “We will have it fixed possibly in the next two days,” he said.

Source: Gulf Daily news, 11 January 2011

Lebanon:Long delayed waste-water treatment plant finally opened

A long-delayed waste-water recycling plant was inaugurated in Siniq in Sidon on the 25/10/2010. Officials expect the facility to mitigate disastrous environmental problems. The plan will collect sewage water from Sidon and purify it before it pours into the sea.

The construction of the plant finished in 2006 but its opening was repeatedly delayed due to technical problems. “I hope this will bring good news to Sidon locals and will be the start of eliminating the city’s environmental problems,” Saudi said during the inauguration ceremony. “We have been suffering from these problems for more than 40 years.”

Work on rerouting the canals started two months ago, and five pipe lines from the main network have so far been redirected. Saudi promised the remaining three plants would soon follow and hoped no more waste water would be dumped on the shores.

Electromechanical engineer Ashraf Adwi said that the purified water from the plant would be dumped in the sea, 2 kilometers from the beach.

Source: The Daily Star, Lebanon,October 26, 2010

New plant to double Kuwait water supply

A project for the construction and rehabilitation of the Mina Abdullah water pumping plant is planned to more than double Kuwait’s fresh water supply.

When finish, the plant will pump around 1.5 million m3 of water per day from two desalination plants and will support the needs of urban developments and planned metropolitan areas.

4 million Euros for Gaza Wastewater Treatment Plant

A financial agreement for an amount of 4 million Euros was signed on the 17^th of October by Ministry of Planning, Mr Dov Zerah, CEO of the French Development Agency (AFD), Dr Ali Jarbawi, Minister of Planning and Administration Development (MOPAD) and Mr Frederic Desagneaux, French Consul General in Jerusalem. The agreement concerns the construction of a regional wastewater treatment plant in North Gaza.

The current plant operates at over four times its nominal capacity. In 2005, AFD, the World Bank, Belgian and Swedish Development & Cooperation and the European Union mobilized USD 46 million for the implementation of a two-phase project. The first phase provided for the construction of a pumping station in Beit Lahia and the implementation of infiltration basin to transfer the sewage to the new site at East of Jabalia to avoid any new flooding of the surrounding areas of Beit Lahia.

The second phase of the project aims to build a biological treatment plant in Jabalia with a capacity of 35,600 m3/day and is expected to meet all the needs of the North Gaza by 2015.

To recover and reuse the treated wastewater an agricultural system will also be set up. With this 4 million Euros grant, additional to the 12 million Euros provided in 2005, AFD will be the main contributor of the second phase.

Source: Aljazeera.com , 19/10/2010

IRAQ: leaking sewage affects Fallujah residents’ health

Image via Wikipedia

The sewage system in Fallujah, a city about 60 km west of Baghad, is still not working. Fallujah’s residents depend on underground septic tanks that are leaking waste onto their streets from where it eventually goes to the Euphrates, a main source of drink water for Fallujah as well as for other downstream cities.

 As a result many people have been affected by diarrhoea, tuberculosis, typhoid and other communicable diseases, affirmed Abdul-Sattar Kadhum al-Nawaf, director of the Fallujah general hospital. He said, “I not have specific numbers, but 10-15 percent of patients at the hospital had water or sewage-related diseases”.

After the invasion to IRAK the US started to build a sewage treatment plant that now after withdraw of the American forces will be handed over to a local contractor. The US has promised to provide the necessary funding for its completion but the fact is that since 2004 until 2010  not a single house is connected to the system, according to IRIN.

Sheikh Hameed al-Alwan, head of Fallujah local council said that even if the handing over were successful “unfortunately the plant will work only partially as its backbone, which is the main pipeline that sends all the waste to the main processing unit, will not be constructed because of the lack of funds.”

Other experts affirm that the Fallujah plant is only one of many others abandoned around the country.

related news: U.S. Army Engineers Bring Sewage System to Fallujah, Iraq, American.gov, 13 August 2009.

Source: IRIN, 14 July 2010

Morocco’s drinking water facility invested over $ 422 mln in 2009

Morocco’s drinking water facility (ONEP) had invested in 2009 over 422 million dollars (3.7 billion dirhams), bringing its coverage rate to 89% in the rural area.

The program of generalizing access to drinking water in the rural area succeeded in 2009 in supplying an additional population of 246,000 inhabitants, besides 120,000 people in 24 centers, according to figures released, Friday (9.7.2010) in Rabat, by ONEP’s board of directors. 

As for the urban area, the 2009 newly-implemented projects required building 6 treatment plants, including a desalination plant and two demineralization plants. This enabled reaching an additional rate of flow of 1,706 l/s.

The state-owned facility carried out 240 km of supply mains, built 23 new water tanks with a capacity of 14,200 m3 and extended the supply network by 400 km. It had also operated a 308 km-wastewater collection system and three wastewater plants treating 11,026 m3 per day. 
  
Energy Minister Amina Benkhadra, who was presiding over the board of directors’ meeting, lauded ONEP’s 2009 achievements.  

Related site: ONEP

Source: Agence Maghred Arabe Presse, 9 July 2010.

Israel is threatening to shut down water supply to the Palestinians

A short but worrying news article in the Jerusalem Post prompts me to post something on the groundwater contamination situation in the Occupied Westbank. The JP stated that “National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau said Wednesday that Israel should consider ceasing water flow to the Palestinians if they do not stop contaminating the water with sewage”.

In this valley, the towering Israel settlement of Ariel dominates the valley. In the middle lies the Palestinian town of Salfit and below is the domain of some Bedouin families and farmers. These families live literally next to open sewage. Untreated waste water from both the Israeli settlements and Salfit contaminate the valley of Salfit. One man told us how he has to cope with expensive water tankers for supply, living next to a black river created by sewage from both Salfit and Ariel.

Israel completely control the water supply and sewage management in this area. Photographer Skip Schiel has written about the area back in 2007. A proposal to build a sewage treatment plant funded by the Germans has been blocked by Israelis time and again. The result ? No treatment of any sewage water entering the valley. As quoted by Skip, according to the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem, 80 factories from Ariel’s Burkan industrial zone discharge 0.81 million cubic meters of wastewater per year into nearby valleys. Israel has long prevented the building of proper sewage treatment plants in the Occupied Territories. For Landau now to accuse the Palestinians of contaminating the groundwater whilst Israel prevents and even destroys the building of sewage treatment plants in the oPt consistently, not seeing his own responsibility to the environment but threatening with ceasing water supply to Palestinians instead is simply cruel, uncompassionate and inhumane.

Source: Israel is threatening to shut down water supply to the Palestinians, From the Source Blog, 13 April 2010

Saudi Arabia: 18% of desalinated water in the world

Saudi Arabia produces 18% of desalinated water in the world. Prince Dr. Turki bin Saud bin Mohammed Al Saud, Vice President of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Saudi Arabia, disclosed this at the scientific programme of a Conference of Water Desalination in Arab Countries in Riyadh on 12 April 2010. He stressed that water desalination in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is considered as an indispensable strategic choice for the provision of drinking water. The Kingdom is producing more than 5 million cubic meters per day. He also reviewed the details of a National Initiative for Water Desalination by Solar Energy under the patronage of the two main mosques in the city. Projects of this National Initiative will be implemented by industrial consortium in three stages in nine years.

Source: Zawya, 12 Apr 2010

Syria, Salamieh: UNICEF and the Embassy of Denmark launch refurbished water plant in drought affected district

Syria is experiencing a severe drought that is jeopardizing the livelihoods of thousands of families. After a second straight year of poor rainfall, this country in the heart of the fertile crescent is, in places, becoming barren.

The supply of potable water is also dwindling, particularly in regions that rely on well water.

In response, the UN has issued a drought appeal for about $53 million to address the urgency of the situation.

New water plant in Salamieh

In Salamieh, in the central governorate of Hama, residents once depended on water from the Al Assi River processed through the 1960s-era Al Qantara Hydrostation. They now depend on local wells. As a result of the drought and climate change, well water is now only available at depths of 600 meters. Water from these wells, however, contains contaminants that make it unsafe for drinking.

To address the problem, Al Qantara Hydrostation has been refurbished with a reverse osmosis unit. The project is the result of a collaboration between the Ministry of Housing, the Directorate of Drinking Water and Sanitation, and the Hama Governorate–with additional funding from UNICEF, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and the Embassy of Denmark.

Benefits for all

Joining the ambassador at the launch, and for a tour of the plant, was the Syrian Minister of Housing, Omar Ghalawanji; the Governor of Hama, Abdul Razak Al Qutaini; the Head of the Directorate of Drinking Water and Sanitation of Syria, Mohammad Al Shahoud; and UNICEF Representative in Syria Sherazade Boualia.

After the ceremony the delegation visited the local Ismail Salibi School, where there had been no water supply at all until the plant became operational.

“Now that the plant is almost fully working, water is available for the drinking and also for the cleaning and use in the toilets, which basically reduces the stress that the students and the teachers had when there was a lack of water,” said Ms. Boualia.

Approximately 120,000 residents will benefit from the new plant.

Watch a UN video on the opening of the plant.

Source: UNICEF, 02 Dec 2009