Development of an approach for the evaluation of wastewater reuse options for arid and semi-arid area

Considering water scarcity problem in many arid and semi-arid regions, it is not surprise that wastewater reuse in agriculture increasingly become the most attractive and reliable water source for irrigation. However, in developing countries sustainable wastewater reuse management faces many challenges. including Technical challenges (such as inadequate sanitation capacities and poor wastewater infrastructures and treatment), the lack of complete economic analysis considers all the economic aspects and benefits; many intangible costs and benefits (such as health and environmental effects of wastewater reuse project, regulatory costs, public information and education, and value of water) hardly included in an economic appraisal of wastewater reuse project. Furthermore, there is a lack of implement tools and models for evaluating wastewater management options for mitigating environmental risks associated with chemicals constituents in wastewater which can be used for economic analysis and help decision maker to decide on available reuse strategies under specific environment, social and economic conditions.
This research was attempted to full fit some of these gaps in knowledge. The aim of this research is to develop a novel integrated approach that combine health risk assessment, environmental risk assessment and economic analysis to enhance more sustainable management of wastewater reuse in agriculture. This study is one of few research that bringing the three aspects together; the outcome of the study is a spreadsheet-based model that can be used to assess different reuse strategies and to determine the suitable scale at which treatment alternatives and interventions are possible, feasible and cost effective to optimize the trade-offs between risks to protect public health and the environment and preserving the substantial benefits. The study was based on a case study in Misurata in northern Libya, but it will have relevance to a wide range of arid and semi-arid regions with similar agro-ecological features