Assessment of Desalination Options in Gaza Strip

Abstract

Access to safe water represents one of the most important basic human needs of the Palestinian people and is vital to a growing economy and a healthy population. The available water resources in the Gaza Strip cannot meet the continuous increase in water demand without the employment of the non-conventional water resources. Desalination by reverse osmosis (RO) technology can substitute the deficit in domestic water requirements with comparatively acceptable and affordable costs. RO systems operating in Gaza Strip include domestic RO units, private desalination companies and the governmental desalination plants. Many studies have been conducted to evaluate the relative advantages and disadvantages of each desalination option. Very few studies have been conducted to examine the effect of the complex interaction of social, economical, technical and environmental factors on these options. It is important to determine the relative strengths and weaknesses of each desalination option in terms of environmental, cost, reliability and flexibility, human health, political and the socio-economic factors. It is also important to determine which of the available desalination options maximizes the net benefits and minimizes the risks and the overall operational costs, while increasing system reliability and flexibility. The adopted methodology depends on many approaches that were used in an integrated manner to achieve the objectives of this research. Data was collected through Consumer’s questionnaire to explore the points of view of consumers about many subjects that are related to the study. Interviews conducted with many of the water and desalination experts in Gaza Strip in addition to interviews with many owners and operators of the private desalination companies. An assessment sheet was designed to evaluate the available desalination options in Gaza Strip and provide the most feasible option. The study proved that the current and proposed governmental large-scale desalination plants are highly sensitive to the political and to the reliability and flexibility indicators. The study also revealed that the private desalination companies and the domestic RO units are sensitive to the human health and to the socio-economic indicators. In case of political and security instability, as it is the case in the current situation in Gaza Strip, the study advises to depend on the domestic RO units as well as the private desalination companies to provide drinking water for the citizens of Gaza Strip and to freeze the option of large-scale desalination plants funded by the donor countries as this option is affected negatively by these factors.