WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOR IN SEMI- RURAL AREAS IN THE GAZA STRIP: BEIT LAHYA TOWN AS ACASE STUDY

Abstract

Groundwater is the major source of drinking water in both urban and rural areas in the Gaza Strip. Population growth and urban expansion have persistently raised the demand for water supply and consequently, greatly increased the exploitation of groundwater in the Gaza strip. The importance of this research is to investigate the water consumption behavior in semi-rural area by studying the current distribution situation, water demand and supply, the unaccounted for water and studying the effect of urban agriculture on the system efficiency. Therefore, field survey to determine the sources of water for irrigation, the agricultural area and water meter readings was conducted for continuous three periods two in summer and one in winter. Urban agriculture is one of the most persistent approaches for supplying food in the Gaza Strip. The main outcomes of the study are that; farmers use the domestic network illegally for irrigation purposes leading to high percentage of unaccounted for water. This leads to higher water consumption per capita in Beit Lahya which apparently exceeds 230 l/c/d according to water well production in year 2010 equal (6.098 MCM) and the unaccounted for water more than 60% in semi urban quarters where green houses are the main agricultural practice. The difference between supply and demand indicates that the farmers use illegal connections to irrigate the adjacent agricultural areas. The overall system efficiency for water distribution is 42.0% and 55.7% for summer and winter periods, respectively. The quarters with intensive agriculture show high percentage of unaccounted for water (73%), while the urban quarters unaccounted for water is 24%. Therefore new policy and regulations concerning water resources management should be implemented for the semi urban areas in the Gaza Strip. Key words: Water supply, Unaccounted for water, illegal connections, urban agriculture