During the mayors’ workshop of Bint Jebail district of south Lebanon that took place in March 2010, Mrs. Adla Toubeh of Aitaroun, the most happy beneficiary of the GVC-LATA Greywater (GW) Project expressed her satisfaction from the performance of her 4-barrel type GW treatment system and drip irrigation network. She had brought with her a basket-full of high quality lemons that were grown at her backyard, by using the treated GW. She told that her trees started to produce wonderful fruits only after irrigating them with the treated GW from her 3 apartment building. “Since two years I am having wonderful production in my garden”, she said. “Specifically the lemon trees that were not productive, now give high quality lemons in abundance, and no one can find good quality quince in the market as the fruits of my garden. All this is due to the reuse of GW from my house, to irrigate more than 50 plants”, she said. Her garden has not been productive during the past 10 to 15 years, because of scarcity of irrigation water. The experience of Mrs. Adla Toubeh is unique, which is a good indicator that when care is taken for GW treatment systems, benefits are ensured in terms of crop production and food security.
In fact, in the framework of the GVC’s -Gruppo di Volantariato Civile, an Italian NGO, project Support to Environmental upgrading of Bint Jbeil district area and support to the economical revitalization in agricultural sector, funded by the Italian Cooperation, (ROSS Emergency Program), LATA -Lebanese Appropriate Technology Association- implemented a series of four GW treatment and reuse projects in the Bint Jbeil district, during 2008 to April 2010. Two types of GW treatment systems were installed: the 4-barrel type at 100 households and the confined trench (CT) type at 5 institutions (mosques and schools).
During 2008, one hundred GW treatment kits of 4-barrel type were installed in the Aitaroun and Ain Ebel towns. 50 households in each town were selected and furnished with the treatment kits. Also training and research work was carried out for the beneficiaries.
The last GW related Project from a series of four aimed at installing 3 GW systems of CT type in Aitaroun (one) and Bint Jbeil (two) and conduction of training and awareness raising workshops for the beneficiaries, technicians and a regional workshop for the municipalities of Bint Jbeil caza. One of the CT units was installed at the religious garden of Aitaroun town and the other two units in the gardens of two mosques in Bint Jbeil town. The treated GW at these 3 sites is now being reused in irrigating the trees and plants of the religious garden and the small gardens of the mosques.
The trainings workshops for local stakeholders that were organized byGVC were of three types. In the first place, LATA experts conducted a training workshop for the community members, where the overall advantages of GW treatment and re-use process was demonstrated, including the health, environmental and economic benefits. This was followed by another training workshop for a group of technicians from the two towns, aiming at local level capacity building,. The installation techniques and the details of the anaerobic treatment process, that takes place in the 4-barrel and CT type GW systems, were discussed during the one day field-training. All of the component parts of the systems were indicated and their functions were specified. Also the maintenance techniques were specified. Through this training workshop, the local technicians developed the capability of installing, maintaining and trouble-shooting of GW treatment systems.
However, the most fruitful activity of this last GW project became the Workshop for the mayors of Bint Jbeil Caza, organized byGVC in cooperation withthe Union of municipalities of Bint Jebail caza. LATA was asked to do technical presentations on the GW reuse technology.
On 6 March 2010, the awareness raising workshop on GW treatment and reuse took place at the headquarters of the Union of Bint Jbeil municipalities, chaired by Eng. Afif Bazzi, President of the Union. Three LATA experts did PowerPoint presentations on various aspects of the GW technology and its potential economic, health and environmental benefits for the region.
At the end of the one day workshop the mayors and the President of the Union were highly motivated from the achievements of the four implemented GW projects in their area, decided to effectively promote the GW concept in their 12 towns, given the fact that each family will be able to generate 100 to 150m3 of treated GW for irrigating their plants.
The mayors were impressed with the innovative concept of GW treatment and reuse. They found it useful for the population of their towns. They recommended the following measures for the effective promotion of the GW reuse concept in their towns:
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Through economic incentives municipalities to encourage the households to adopt the use of GW treatment systems in their backyards
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Separation, Treatment and Reuse of GW to be mandatory during the procedures of securing building permits and this to become a law at Provincial level.
GVC’s four GW related projects proved to be successful during the implementation of the ROSS Emergency Program of the Italian Cooperation. The most effective result being the local level policy impact, in favor of GW reuse.
NOTE
GW is generated in every house as less polluted wastewater from the kitchen, laundry, sinks, washing machines and dishwashers, hand washing basins and showers. It does not include the “black” wastewater from toilets that contain large concentrations of faecal matter and urine.