Category Archives: Water Management

Sustainable Wastewater Management: Why Solid–Liquid Separation is the Quiet Hero of Water Conservation

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Water is the resource that touches every part of the modern economy — yet it is also one of the most mismanaged. According to UN estimates, over 80% of the world’s wastewater is released back into the environment without adequate treatment. In water-stressed regions across the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond, that statistic is not just an environmental concern; it is an existential one. As industries expand and populations grow, the question is no longer whether we treat wastewater, but how efficiently and sustainably we do it. At the heart of nearly every effective wastewater treatment process lies a deceptively simple principle: separating … Continue reading →

Best Practices for the Operation and Maintenance of Seawater Desalination Plants

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Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination has become one of the most widely deployed technologies for securing potable water in water-scarce regions. Its rapid expansion is driven by technological maturity, modularity, and continuous improvements in energy efficiency. Despite these advances, the long-term performance of desalination plants is still strongly dependent on operation and maintenance (O&M) practices rather than on design alone. Extensive research has demonstrated that fouling, scaling, and operational instability remain the dominant causes of performance decline in full-scale SWRO plants, leading to increased energy consumption, reduced permeate quality, and higher life-cycle costs [1–3]. The global desalination sector has evolved … Continue reading →

The Reuse of Greywater: Insights

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Greywater includes water from showers, bathtubs, sinks, kitchen, dishwashers, laundry tubs, and washing machines. The major components of greywater are soap, shampoo, grease, toothpaste, food residuals, cooking oils, detergents, hair etc. In terms of volume, greywater is the largest constituent of total wastewater flow from households. In a typical household, 50-80% of wastewater is greywater, out of which laundry washing accounts for as much as 30% of the average household water use. The key difference between greywater and sewage (or black water) is the organic loading. Sewage has a much larger organic loading compared to greywater. The Importance of Reuse … Continue reading →

Litani River: A Sorry State of the Affairs

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The Litani River, the largest river in Lebanon, faces a multitude of environmental problems. Due to decades of neglect and mismanagement, the river has become heavily polluted. The main contributors to the degradation of Litani River are industrial pollution from factories and slaughterhouse, untreated sewage, chemicals from agriculture runoffs and disposal of municipal waste. The pollution has reached such a level where it is obvious to the human eye and causing serious health issues for people drinking its contaminated water. The Litani River is a source of income for many families who use it in summer for many recreational activities; … Continue reading →

Water Crisis in Refugee Camps

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The refugee crisis has hit record heights in recent years. According to the UNHCR, as of the end of 2019 there were approximately 79.5 million refugees worldwide. This is a significant increase from a decade ago, when there were 37.5 million refugees worldwide. Syria’s ongoing civil war, with 7.6 million people displaced internally, and 3.88 million people displaced into the surrounding region and beyond as refugees, has alone made the Middle East the world’s largest producer and host of forced displacement. Adding to the high totals from Syria are displacements of at least 2.6 million people in Iraq and 309,000 … Continue reading →

Trifluoroacetic Acid (TFA): An Emerging Threat to Water Resources and Drinking Water Safety

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Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) has emerged as one of the most widespread and persistent fluorinated contaminants detected in the environment. As an ultra-short-chain member of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) family, TFA exhibits exceptional water solubility, high mobility, and extreme environmental persistence. Unlike legacy PFAS such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), TFA is primarily generated through the degradation of fluorinated refrigerants, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals. Recent monitoring studies have revealed its increasing occurrence in rainwater, groundwater, surface waters, drinking water, food products, and even human serum. This review aims to summarize current knowledge regarding TFA sources, … Continue reading →

The Role of Dissolved Gases and Ionic Composition in Reverse Osmosis Desalination

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As global water stress intensifies, seawater desalination has become one of the cornerstones of water security in arid and semi-arid regions. From the Gulf countries to the Mediterranean basin, Australia, and parts of North America, desalination plants now produce tens of millions of cubic meters of drinking water every day. Reverse osmosis (RO) has emerged as the dominant desalination technology due to its increasingly competitive energy efficiency and the continuous improvement of membrane performance [1]. However, beyond traditional operational parameters such as salinity, pressure, and recovery rate, one critical factor often remains underestimated: seawater temperature. Its influence extends far beyond … Continue reading →

The Vanishing Aquifers in MENA: An Overview

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Aquifers are of tremendous importance for the MENA as world’s most water-stressed countries are located in the region, including Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran, Lebanon and Yemen. However, aquifers in MENA are coming under increasing strain and are in real danger of extinction. Eight aquifers systems, including those in MENA, are categorized as ‘over stressed’ aquifers with hardly any natural recharge to offset the water consumed.   Aquifers in MENA Aquifers stretched beneath Saudi Arabia and Yemen ranks first among ‘overstressed’ aquifers followed by Indus Basin of northwestern India-Pakistan and then by Murzuk-Djado Basin in North Africa. The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer … Continue reading →

Desalination at a Turning Point: Breakthrough Innovations Driving Sustainable Water Production

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Desalination has become one of the most important technological pillars for addressing global water scarcity. As climate change intensifies droughts, population growth increases water demand, and industrial development places additional pressure on freshwater resources, desalination is evolving from an alternative water source into a strategic component of water security [1,2]. Recent advances presented at international scientific forums reveal that the sector is undergoing a profound transformation. No longer focused solely on producing freshwater from seawater, modern desalination is increasingly characterized by resource recovery, energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, digitalization, and integration with renewable energy systems. One of the most significant breakthroughs … Continue reading →

Water-Food Linkage in the Arab World

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The water-food linkage represents an important and vital nexus in the Arab countries. Under the current unstable food security situation (fluctuating energy prices, poor harvests, rising demand from a growing population, the use of biofuels and export bans have all increased prices), the ability for the Arab countries to feed their growing population is severely challenged by competition over increasingly limited water resources. Agriculture is currently challenged by competition among sectors on available water resources. While the majority of water in the Arab region is used inefficiently in the agricultural sector (about 85% with less than 40% efficiency), which is … Continue reading →

مشروع قناة البحرين الأحمر-الميت

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قناة البحر الميت و البحر الأحمر , و البعض يسميها قناة البحرين أو قناة ال “ Red-Dead  “  هذا هو المشروع الذي تم توقيعه في التاسع من كانون الأول لعام 2013, حيث تم بالإتفاق مع السلطات الثلاث الأردنية , الفلسطينية و الإسرائيلية معا . يهدف هذا المشروع الضخم بناء خط انابيب يمتد من البحر الأحمر إلى البحر الميت، وهو جزء من مبادرة من شأنها انتاج ملايين الأمتار المكعبة من مياه الشرب للأماكن الجافة في المنطقة وجلب مياه البحرالأحمر إلى البحر الميت  لتحقيق الاستقرار في مستوى مياهه وتوليد الطاقة الكهربائية لدعم احتياجات الطاقة لهذا المشروع . مشروع قناة البحر الأحمر – البحر … Continue reading →

كيفية التجنب من شرب المعادن الثقيلة؟

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تظهر المعادن الثقيلة بشكل طبيعي في البيئة المحيطة بنا. لذا فهي ليست من المواد التي نريدها في أجسامنا. ينتج عن كل من المعادن الثقيلة الشائعة تفاعلات مختلفة داخل الجسم. في بعض الحالات قد تساهم بعض المعادن بالتسمم أو بعض الأمراض. إليكم ما نحتاج معرفته عن المعادن الثقيلة وكيفية تجنب شربها. الأعراض التي تسببها المعادن الثقيلة إن وجدت في ماء الشرب ليس من السهل دائمًا معرفة ما إذا كان لديكم معادن ثقيلة في مياه الشرب. تتراوح الأعراض المتعلقة بوجود كميات من المعادن الثقيلة من خفيفة إلى شديدة ، فهي تميل إلى التطور ببطء بمرور الوقت. تشمل بعض الأعراض الشائعة المرتبطة بالتعرض … Continue reading →