G. Oron(1), A. Brenner(1), S. Shandalov(1), R. Mesalem(2), M. Saidam(3), M. Haddad(4), J. Hagin(5), and U. Shamir(5)
1 - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, Kiryat Sde-Boker, Israel
2 - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, The Institutes for applied Research, Israel
3 - The Royal Scientific Society, Jordan
4 - Palestinian Water Authority, Nablus, Palestinian Authority
5 - The Water Research Institute, Technion, Israel.

Scarcity of fresh water in the Mediterranean Basin, and primarily in the eastern region has promoted the search for alternative sources. Population growth and higher standards of living pose increasing demands for additional fresh water. Wastewater treatment and reuse are important components in meeting the increasing demands for water in the Middle-Bast region. Reuse of reclaimed wastewater for irrigation simultaneously alleviates environmental problems originated by effluent disposal at uncontrolled sites. Reuse of treated wastewater is a trigger for enlarging the potential of water availability along with diminishing environmental and health risks.

A cooperative research project between Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli experts from various institutions for improved treatment and reuse of wastewater is in progress. The project addresses implementation of advanced treatment methods such as Sequential Batch Reactors (SBR) with improved effluent application methods such as drip irrigation. For better quality control the SBR effluent is further treated by a Micro Filtration (MF) stage.

The results indicate that high quality secondary effluent is obtained under SBR treatment, both in Jordan and Israel. The drip irrigation in Israel and the Palestinian Authority operates reliably. The SBR effluent can be further treated by the MF stage to obtain effluent for non-restricted irrigation.