Abstract
The main aim of this research was to assess the problems of using cesspits in the non-sewered areas in the West Bank of Palestine by the means of a questionnaire, with a sample size of 485 households, targeting the cesspits’ owners. People who use cesspits for house onsite wastewater management are not satisfied with them, and most of them complain about high disturbance during discharge of the cesspits (75.5%). Emptying cesspits represents a financial burden, costing 6% of the households’ monthly income. The frequency of cesspits’ emptying decreases substantially when there are onsite GWTPs. People accept that constructing a house with an onsite GWTPs when supported by external funding, and to a much lesser extent when they need to fund them themselves. The majority of people prefer sewerage networks for wastewater management(74.8%), followed by onsite GWTPs (15.5%), and cesspits are the least preferable (9.5%). Therefore, a more technically sound individual home onsite wastewater management system should be applied to replace cesspits so as to solve their negative implications on the socio-economic, environmental, and health aspects in the Palestinian rural communities.
Highlights
The aim of this research was to assess the problems of using cesspits in the nonGWTPs as an areas alternative onsiteofwastewater management in theof rural areas, sewered in the house
The findings revealed that water shortage was a main driver for construction of GWTPs, since the vast majority of those who used untreated gray water were willing to use treated gray water in irrigation
People who use cesspits for house onsite wastewater management are not satisfied with them, and most of them complain about high disturbance during discharge of the cesspits
Summary
Billions of people around the world suffer from poor access to water, sanitation, and hygiene [1]. Poor sanitation remains one of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century, as nearly 90% of the generated sewage in less developed countries and. More than 80 % of all diseases in the developing world are caused by poor sanitation and contaminated drinking water resources [3]. Septic tanks and pit latrines are used to meet the sanitation needs of more than 2.7 billion people worldwide, especially in lowincome countries [4,5]. Ensuring access to water and sanitation for all through sustainable management of water resources is the sixth of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, developed by the UN General Assembly in 2015 [6]. The most precious resource, is exploited mainly in agricultural production, and is elementary to achieve worldwide food security
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