Development of Safety Plan for Desalinated Water Use in Gaza Strip Middle Governorate Case Study

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 quality of the pumped groundwater is the main concern. The groundwater in the Gaza Strip has deteriorated over the past thirty years both in terms of quality andquantity.During the last years; water quality has deteriorated and became unsuitable for human consumption in most parts of the strip. To face this problem, the citizens and the authority in Gaza Strip use many options; the major of these options is water desalination where the reverse osmosis (RO) technology is applied. Water desalination, which is widely applied in the strip, has environmental and health risks and the produced fresh water with very low chemical concentrations. For existing desalinated plants, water safety plan (WSP) is very important to identify potential risks and available barriers in their systems and support the introduction of a preventive risk management approach to problems that could have an impact on the quantity and quality of water supplied. WSP is a process control oriented management system that can help water suppliers to produce and deliver good and safe drinking-water, contributing in this way to improve public health protection. 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, interviews conducted with many of the owners and operators of the private desalination companies and interviews with desalinated water vendors. Also, chemical and biological water samples were conducted to investigate the properties of the desalinated water in water distribution stages (water source, delivery trucks and home tanks). It is found that 40% of the delivery trucks and 20% of the home tanks were infected by microbiological pollutants. The study proved that WSP is not applied in the Middle Governorate where number of actions needed to secure safety of drinking water. Also, the study confirmed that the main hazardous events in the desalination water distribution system were at the second and last stages in the system (delivery trucks and home tanks); this is due to the lower level in the public awareness among consumers and water vendors about the hygiene and the risks of water pollution on the public health. In case of monitoring and assessment, the studies confirmed the importance of monitoring and follow up of the desalination plants in Gaza Strip to pursue the compliance of these desalination plants to conditions and terms of water quality that agreed on. The study advises to coordinate between all the parties involved in water issues such as (decision makers, water experts, water research centers, municipalities and lawyers) to confirm the implementation of WSP in Gaza Strip. Palestinian authorities and institutions need to take the initiative and create a national framework for safe drinking water with effective guidance and regular external audit of WSP and improved registering of information on water quality, compliance to legal requirements and contamination events are recommended.