Appraisal of Socio-Economic and Cultural Factors Affecting Wastewater Reuse in the West Bank

The reuse of treated wastewater offers opportunities of reducing demand on scarce potable water resources, especially within the semi-arid environment of the West Bank. The benefit of such additional supplies of water is further augmented by a reduction in the disposal of raw wastewater to the nearby wadis existing in the West Bank. Importantly, social acceptance issues may pose a barrier to the effective use of this resource should the concept not be comprehensively presented. This research highlights the potential for reuse of wastewater, identifies the areas of concern, and examines the most important factors that affect the wastewater in the Palestinian Territories, particularly in the West Bank. The research was conducted in the West Bank by applying questionnaires to different levels of the Palestinian community. The target groups were classified into four categories of different characteristics. The questionnaires included several questions which discuss several factors that may affect the concerns and hence the acceptance of the West Bank community. The most important factors that were taken into consideration are the social, religion, economic, health, political situation in the Palestinian Territories, scarce fresh water in the area in addition to the institutional situation related to water and wastewater sectors. The questionnaires were collected and analyzed. Several factors were found to be interacted and affect the community opinion. Recommendations were given at the end of the study. It was generally found that religion and traditions have negative effect of the acceptance to the wastewater reuse. In this context, the psychological factor has a negative effect on the opinion of the community. The public awareness is weak, the information provided to the community is not sufficient. Most of the respondents accepted the reuse if this would provide them with additional water quantities. Acceptability of reusing treated effluent decrease by increasing the opportunity to be utilized in human contact purposes or in unrestricted agriculture. People seem do not understand the religious opinion of the reuse. Most of the respondents of the four types considered the treated effluent unclean from a religious thinking.