MEDAWARE - Development of tools and guidelines for the promotion of the sustainable urban wastewater treatment and reuse in the agricultural production in the Mediterranean countries (www.uest.gr/medaware)
Starting date: 2003-05-01 - Duration (months): 42

 
Short description:
Water is an environmental, social and economic asset and as such needs to be managed with the objective of conserving a common patrimony in the interests of the community at large. Thus it is necessary and important to guarantee water availability over time by means of sustainable forms of management, which will allow the Mediterranean countries to cope with present demands without jeopardizing environmental balance and the needs of future generations. The North African and Middle East Countries are characterized by the lowest per capita amount of water supply in the world, unequally distributed in space and time. The Mediterranean Water Chapter established in Rome in 1992 stressed the need to contribute towards the creation of new sources of water. The Declaration of the Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on local water management of Turin stressed the importance of integrating water resources management into sustainable development policies. It also stated the need for a participatory approach that had to be encouraged involving civil society, including water users and organizations at local, regional and national level. Another main aspect of this declaration is the statement that water scarcity could be alleviated through mobilization of non-conventional water resources, such as reuse of wastewater. Another problem that these countries face is that there are no sufficient systems for urban wastewater treatment. Raw sewage is deposited into the sea, rivers, and pits or used for irrigation purposes endangering human health and environment as a whole. According to the Barcelona Declaration the Mediterranean cities that do not belong to EU and that have a population of more than 100,000 inhabitants must have installed adequate water treatment systems to treat their sewage by the year 2005, while those having a population of more than 50,000 inhabitants must do so by the year 2010.

The beneficiary countries are Cyprus, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, Palestinian Authority and Turkey. These countries are all represented in the consortium of this project proposal as follows: Agricultural Research Institute of Cyprus (Cyprus), Jordan University of Science and Technology (Jordan), University of Chouaib Doukkali (Morocco), The American University of Beirut (Lebanon), Ministry of Environmental Affairs (Palestine), Istanbul Technical University (Turkey), The Middle East Technical University (Turkey). The two EU countries that participate in this project proposal are: Greece represented by the Technical University of Athens (Unit of Environmental Sciences, UES) and a non-profit organization namely Prospect Systems and Spain by the Centro de Automatizacion, Robotica y Technologias de la Informacion y de la Fabrication. The main objectives if this project perfectly match with the strategies of these countries aiming at strengthening wastewater management and utilization of the treated effluent for irrigation purposes. UES has a more than 20-year experience in the field of environmental and waste management. It is very active in the areas of wastewater treatment, development of national strategies and action plans, environmental impact studies, analysis of effectiveness of policies and measures, clean technologies and best available techniques, industrial risk assessment and hazard analysis, etc. It has a lengthy experience in applied research through national and European projects (more than 100), in training and educating programs, in participating in scientific committees and working groups concerning environmental subjects, etc. Additionally it provides consultation and scientific assistance to the public and private sector and as a participant in national and international environmental networks is experienced in organizing conferences, seminars, workshops and courses related to environmental issues. Therefore the transfer of knowledge, experience and know-how in the Mediterranean countries will be mostly valuable if also considering that Greece and Spain are Mediterranean countries and therefore common interests are shared between all partners. The main objectives of the project are:
- The identification of the (i) existing situation prevailed in the participating countries in regards to water and wastewater management policy, (ii) the existing situation related to the operation of the urban wastewater plants and the effluent disposal methods and practices applied, (iii) the potential negative impacts caused by the non orthodological operation of the wastewater treatment and disposal methods applied with emphasis given to wastewater reuse in agriculture
- The development of specifications for the urban wastewater treatment technologies and systems and also for the wastewater agricultural reuse methods, the aim being the presentation of those, including innovative ones, where the effluent can be safely reused and easily adapted in the regional context.
- The development of the appropriate tools and a database for the effective control and monitoring of the operation of the wastewater treatment plants and to develop relevant guidelines to ensure the safe operation of the wastewater treatment plants.
- The development of a multi-criteria analysis user friendly software that will guide the responsible authorities to the most efficient solutions in terms of health and safety for the agricultural reuse of the produced effluent as well as in terms of sustainable operation of the treatment unit
- Organization of a series of training workshops, conferences, pilot studies, etc., aiming at capacity building, information and know-how transfer and raise of awareness
- Establishment of a network between the authorities of the Med. Countries for the exchange of information and intra regional transfer of experience

The expected results will be the intra-regional transfer of knowledge, the increase of awareness and education level on relevant problems and opportunities, reinforcement of capacity building to promote active involvement of all actors concerned in water planning and wastewater management, dissemination of information on the role and the effectiveness of training in spreading awareness in respect to opportunities for wastewater reuse, sustainable operation of wastewater treatment plants, environmental advantages and the training of all project target groups e.g workers, farmers, operators and competent authorities on the wastewater sustainable management and safe reuse. The project consists of 8 tasks and one that concerns the project management.

Themes covered:
IV. Irrigation water management
V. Use of non-conventional water resources

Projects documents available for MEDAWARE

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