Abstract
Water scarcity remains the major looming challenge that is facing Jordan. Wastewater reclamation is considered as an alternative source of fresh water in semi-arid areas with water shortage or increased consumption. In the present study, the current status of wastewater reclamation and reuse in Jordan was analyzed considering 30 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The assessment was based on the WWWTPs’ treatment processes in Jordan, the flowrates scale, and the effluents’ average total dissolved solid (TDS) contents. Accordingly, 60% of the WWTPs in Jordan used activated sludge as a treatment technology; 30 WWTPs were small scale (<1 × 104 m3/day); and a total of 17.932 million m3 treated wastewater had low TDS (<1000 ppm) that generally can be used in industries with relatively minimal cost of treatment. Moreover, the analysis classified the 26 million m3 groundwater abstraction by major industries in Jordanian governorates. The results showed that the reclaimed wastewater can fully offset the industrial demand of fresh water in Amman, Zarqa, and Aqaba governorates. Hence, the environmental assessment showed positive impacts of reclaimed wastewater reuse scenario in terms of water depletion (saving of 72.55 million m3 groundwater per year) and climate change (17.683 million kg CO2Eq reduction). The energy recovery assessment in the small- and medium-scale WWTPs (<10 × 104 m3/day) revealed that generation of electricity by anaerobic sludge digestion equates potentially to an offset of 0.11–0.53 kWh/m3. Finally, several barriers and prospects were put forth to help the stakeholders when considering entering into an agreement to supply and/or reuse reclaimed water.
Highlights
Water is becoming a limited resource in terms of quantity and quality due to the growing global economy and population, accelerating urbanization, and climate change effects [1,2,3]
The following findings can be concluded in the present study:
Reclaimed wastewater reuse has been driven as an alternative water supply in such looming challenges of water scarcity
Summary
Water is becoming a limited resource in terms of quantity and quality due to the growing global economy and population, accelerating urbanization, and climate change effects [1,2,3]. Water 2020, 12, 1276 has been employed as an alternative water supply in arid and semi-arid regions [4,5]. In this context, wastewater and water reclamation plays a vital role in sustainable water resource management and mainly in various application such as agricultural irrigation, industrial processes, aquaculture, and for any non-human contact utilization, etc. The potential of recycling and reusing treated wastewater in a transition to a circular economy should be exploited thoroughly in arid and semi-arid areas, since it could synergize the wide adoption of water reuse as an alternate water supply [14,15,16]. Reclaimed wastewater is a resource that can be continuously produced unaffected by climatic conditions [9,10], especially in the Mediterranean region, one of the most vulnerable areas to climate change and with limited water resources [11,12,13].
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