Abstract
Northern Cyprus (NC) is suffering from limited water resources and reiterated drought condition experiences due to global warming effects. Previous studies revealed that the water management policy in the country is not sustainable from the perspective of demand and balance. Apparently, the reuse of recycled water will be an alternative resource and can be utilized for some specific purposes to reduce water extraction from the ground. It is expected that treated wastewater will reach 20 million cubic meters (MCM) per year after the completion of the new sewage system for Lefkosa. Today, 20,000 m3 of wastewater is treated at the Lefkosa Central Treatment Plant up to the secondary treatment level, in which the degree of treatment varies from 60% to 95% owing to the weather conditions in the country during the year. Effluent water reuse in NC was not accepted due to cultural belief. However, water scarcity was experienced in the country during the last decade, forcing the farmers to benefit from the recycled water. There is no regulatory framework available in the country for effluent water reuse. However, preparation studies are almost finalized after discussions among government and European Union (EU) agencies. Cyprus, as an EU country, has an obligation to treat the wastewater up to the secondary level before releasing it in an environmentally friendly nature, following the Directive 91/271/EEC. This paper analyzes the effluent water reuse possibilities as a component of integrated water resource management in Northern Cyprus considering laboratory experiment results. It appears that applying tertiary treatment in Northern Cyprus will allow 20 MCM of water contribution to the water budget and it will help protect the vulnerable environment. Also, since the cost of tertiary treatment will be 0.2 United States dollars (USD)/m3, it would be reasonable to prefer this process to the desalination of water, which costs of 1 USD/m3.
Highlights
Northern Cyprus (NC) covers an area of 3355 km2, approximately one-third of Cyprus Island.Nearly half of the coastline of the island is within the boundaries of NC (Figure 1)
The excessive exploitation of groundwater might lead to a large drawdown of water, which could, in turn, make NC vulnerable to water scarcity for a long period of time
Experimental results obtained from the Lefkosa Central Treatment Plant between 2007 and makes Table it difficult to be used for irrigational purposes
Summary
Northern Cyprus (NC) covers an area of 3355 km , approximately one-third of Cyprus Island. Half of the coastline of the island is within the boundaries of NC (Figure 1). NC has a population of approximately 260,000 inhabitants and a population of 300,000 livestock [1]. The over-abstraction of fresh water from groundwater resources caused a high degree of salinization in coastal aquifers and a complete depletion in the interior level [5,6]. To overcome this problem, 41 dams were constructed, of which 18 serve the agricultural sector and the remaining recharge the aquifers in
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