Palestine: The AECI grants a subsidy to undertake the second project in the Palestinian Territories on wastewater reuse and treatment

The Spanish Agency for International Development & Cooperation (AECI) has granted CENTA Foundation grant worth € 450,000 to carry out a new project in the Palestinian Territories, particularly in Hebron. The objective is to design and implement a comprehensive system of treatment and reuse of wastewater in the vicinity of Wadi Al Aroub. 

This is the second action by the Foundation Center will in the area. As in the previous initiative, the local partner will be the Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), to participate actively in the implementation. 

The project proposes the implementation of a comprehensive treatment of urban wastewater in areas along the Wadi Al Aroub, between the refugee camp and Al Aroub Shuyukh Al Aroub population in Hebron. Although the project area is endowed with a supply network, presents a comprehensive sanitation service gaps. In addition to addressing this problem, with the introduction of a system adapted to the context of the area, it is intended that the target population can also have an extra supply of water for agricultural irrigation in conditions of optimum quality and quantity. Also, the action will improve the environmental quality of the environment, highly degraded due to discharges of untreated sewage that run through dry riverbeds and seasonal, which is a major source of disease for the population. 

The current situation in the Palestinian Territories, where water shortage creates a significant barrier to agricultural development and livelihoods, causing serious damage to both the local economy, politics and socio-cultural life. Also, the wastewater generated cause a negative impact on health and hygiene, posing a serious threat to the population. 

In 2009, the AECI CENTA Foundation awarded a grant to carry out a project aimed to conduct a study and analysis of the situation of sanitation and water treatment in the area to establish the lines that enable the implementation of a technical choice service management to address basic sanitation adapted to the context of the area as well as the options most suitable purification technology. Currently this project is in progress.