Solving the Sewage Problem in Arab Areas

Most Mediterranean countries, from Spain to Greece, have gained a great deal of experience in the treatment of sewage and in its recycling for use in rural agriculture – usually by taking advantage of inexpensive alternatives. Yet in rural areas of the Galilee millions of cubic meters of sewage are left untreated, both posing a health hazard and endangering the groundwater.

In the framework of a previous study a survey was done of 25 Arab settlements in the Galilee and 10 settlements in the most populated region of the “Triangle” (the Arab villages located east of the line connecting Kfar Saba and Hadera, in the center of Israel). The results of the survey showed a lack of clear policy for waste treatment – in rural regions in general and in the Arab sector in particular. The villages of Mayyar and Sachnin represented the minority of Arab settlements, where there is a local system for sewage treatment and its recycling for local agriculture. The quality of the treated water in these two villages was found to be borderline, and even low, for the irrigation of olive groves.

Since Mayyar’s sewage system was recently connected to that of the centralized Ramat Levanim project (by the Kinneret), the Sachnin model remains the only one of its type in the Arab sector. The model that is presented here is critical to a thorough understanding of the subject from the point of management and to its comparison to options, such as the upgrading of the system or the joining together of all the Sachnin valley settlements (Sachnin, Arabeh, and Dir Hana) to the sewage system of Carmiel.

The Report

This report sums up the information on the treatment of sewage in Sachnin and the improvements necessary to widen the scope of the use of treated sewage, given the resources currently available. It includes an estimate of the cost of the upgrading as opposed to other proposed alternatives, and a discussion of three options for sewage treatment which were studied in this work and analyzed from a financial perspective (including the costs of construction, use, maintenance, and recycling). An optimal model for recycling was run, in order to obtain maximal profit in the irrigation of olive groves and other orchards appropriate to the conditions of the Sachnin valley.