While five percent of the world’s population resides in the Middle East and North Africa, the region has less than one percent of the world’s available water supply. These startling statistics demonstrate that water scarcity is a major threat to the region.
MEED, a provider of Middle East business intelligence, estimates that sewage treatment capacity will have to more than double over the next six years in order to accommodate the region’s economic growth. While the global recession has impacted Middle Eastern countries, growth remains dynamic among the GCC (the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf), which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Water reuse technologies are emerging as a vital solution to the region’s and the world’s water shortage challenges. With proper treatment, seawater and wastewater can be reused for beneficial purposes such as drinking water, agricultural and landscape irrigation and industrial processes, enabling communities and countries to stretch limited freshwater supplies. More than 70 percent of wastewater is reused in many GCC countries, and many of these countries are aiming for 100 percent reuse of treated sewage effluent within the next few years.
The reuse market in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is the third largest consumer of water per capita in the world. In the next several years, it also is expected to become the third largest water reuse market in the world after the United States and China, according to Christopher Gasson, director of the Sustainable Water Alliance. Currently, only about 18 percent of the 1.84 million m³ of wastewater the country processes daily is reused.
In order to more effectively tap this potential market, Saudi Arabia has made significant changes to its water sector regulatory system to make it more investor friendly. These changes have also enabled the creation of organizations such as the National Water Company to manage the transition and provide state partners for investors. Wastewater treatment is also being opened up to the private sector. The National Water Company is planning to invest some USD $23 billion in Saudi Arabia’s sewage collection and treatment infrastructure over the next 20 years to increase wastewater network coverage to 100 percent, up from the current coverage level of 45 percent.
Advancing wastewater technologies have emboldened Middle Eastern countries to set their sights on dramatically increased reuse targets. There are a range of treatment processes that can be used for water reuse, depending on the application for the reclaimed water, the standards applied and the infrastructure already in place. These typically consist of a combination of coagulation/flocculation, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection.
The most advanced and most successful technologies often are provided by companies with a global presence and that offer solutions across a broad range of water and wastewater applications. For example, Severn Trent Services’ range of innovative technologies incorporates proven solutions for secondary, tertiary and advanced wastewater treatment as well as desalination pre-treatment. The company has been awarded various water reuse projects for the supply of its tertiary filtration equipment including the South Jeddah Phase I and Buraidah Phase II projects. The company also was awarded the seawater electrochlorination project for the Saline Water Conversion Corporation’s Shoaiba desalination plant, and its Operating Services group has been pre-qualified to bid the management contract for projects in Dammam and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Severn Trent Services has regional operations in the Middle East to support sales, local sourcing and technical service through offices in Cairo, Egypt and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The company also maintains a strong network of manufacturer representatives and distributors who can work with and further educate local engineering firms and contractors about its variety of water and wastewater products and services.
Water reuse technologies
From the standpoint of cost and technical efficiency, biological treatment has proven to be an excellent treatment technology for reuse applications around the world and is now being considered for many new water reuse treatment facilities in Saudi Arabia. Severn Trent Services has been designing and placing its TETRA® biofiltration systems in advanced wastewater tertiary plants worldwide for more then 20 years. TETRA wastewater filters represent over 10 percent of the world’s capacity for wastewater reuse systems. In excess of 40 percent of the wastewater reclamation plants in Florida, USA, alone use TETRA technology to successfully deliver safe, reused water sources for municipal, industrial and wetlands recharge applications.
The key to the success of a wastewater reuse program is tertiary filtration capable of consistently producing a high quality effluent while enhancing the disinfection process - both chlorination and UV - and improving water quality. Good tertiary filters offer the benefit of lowering total suspended solids (TSS), turbidity and biological oxygen demand to meet the required discharge permits.
TETRA DeepBed™ technology is used to produce high quality industrial and municipal wastewater effluents for discharge and reuse applications. DeepBed filters meet or exceed reuse standards of 2 NTU or less. The filter effluent is typically 0.4 NTU for a TSS removal filter and 0.7 for a denitrification filter. Backwash water is typically only two to four percent of forward flow. Lower backwash consumption and recycling cut plant operating costs and increase plant capacity. Also, the DeepBed filter has the flexibility to be converted to a denitrification filter with minor modifications. This allows for simultaneous TSS and NO3-N removal.
As the largest producer of desalinated water in the world, Saudi Arabia is constantly evaluating best practices in membrane filtration treatment. A critically important aspect affecting the performance of desalination plants is the design of pre-treatment filters in removing suspended solids. While a number of different rapid gravity filter floor technologies have been employed in the pre-treatment of desalinated water, the TETRA LP Block™ dual parallel underdrain filters offer technical advantages including a reduction in installation costs and providing a long maintenance-free life.
The TETRA LP Block underdrain filters form the floors of the rapid gravity sand filters that will treat the seawater feeding the plant prior to main cartridge filter and RO membranes. The LP Block floor supports the sand media during filter operation and provides excellent distribution of air and water during backwashing to enhance the cleaning of the gravity filter and extend the run times. The filters are of a lightweight construction and made of corrosion-resistant materials. The absence of moving parts reduces maintenance and wear. TETRA LP Block filters are popular with plant owners for their low headloss, their easy assembly and their exceptional installation strength and integrity either as a retrofit or for new filter underdrain applications.
The underdrain filters also feature the GroutGrip™ design, which helps to alleviate the buoyancy inherent to other plastic underdrain designs and installations. Additionally, the wide, low-profile design of the LP Block requires that fewer blocks be installed to cover a filter floor. Therefore, fewer joints and less grout are needed.
The Middle East is at the epicenter of global concerns about water shortages and water and wastewater treatment capacity. As countries such as Saudi Arabia work to expand their wastewater treatment infrastructure and increase reuse capacity, a variety of technologies – from biological filtration processes to electrochlorination disinfection systems to desalination – have been proven effective as treatment solutions for a variety of applications.
For more information, e-mail info@severntrentservices.com.
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