Impacts of desalination plants on surrounding environment and public health in Gaza City, Palestine

Other Title(s)

تأثير محطات التحلية على البيئة المحيطة و صحة الإنسان في مدينة غزة

Dissertant

al-Batniji, Mazin Subhi

Thesis advisor

Abu Hin, Ziyad Hasan

University

Islamic University

Faculty

Faculty of Science

Department

Department of Environmental Science

University Country

Palestine (Gaza Strip)

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2015

English Abstract

Gaza Strip is an area suffers from sharp deterioration in the water situation ( both in terms of quality & quantity) due to high growth of population, industrial and agricultural activities.

The bad situation leads to establish a lot of commercial desalination plants, in order to contribute in the solution of water problems.

The goal of the research is to evaluate the effects of desalination plants on the surrounding environment and human health, by analyzing the desalinated water chemically, bacteriology and physically, measuring the level noise and air quality, the social effects of the desalination plants and providing some suggestions contributing in the mitigation of these effects.

The results indicated that there is growth in the number of desalination plants in the last seven years, about half of the desalination plants located in the west of Gaza City.

All of these plants depend on private wells as water source but there were large number of these wells not closed and also not protected well.

There are 70 % of the desalination plants located in inappropriate sites (near facilities like schools, factories...).

The pipe of discharge was fixed well in 72% of the trucks and the location of the generator was suitable in 76% of the trucks.

Brine water disposal in 63% of the plants was in sewage.

Most of the desalination plants were not disinfect the tanks, while 40.7% of the plants add chlorine to the water tanks.

There is no any problem in the physiochemical parameters of the desalinated water where all the samples were according to the WHO standards.

The problem were present in the brackish water, where all the samples have physiochemical parameters higher than the WHO standards.

There was bacteriological contamination in 27% of the plants with FC, 28.3% were contaminated of E coli bacteria because of the absence of disinfection.

The air quality were not affected with the operation of the desalination plants.

The air quality was affected during the operation of the delivery trucks.

Differences between the concentrations of CO and CO2 before and during the operation of the trucks are observed and measured.

The desalination plants cause noise pollution as a result of the operation of pumps and the delivery trucks.

All of the measured values of noise levels during the operation of the plant and the trucks were higher than the WHO standards.

There were weakness of monitoring and follow up which must be conducted by competent authorities.

This weakness is in the technical issues and in the terms of conditions, hygiene, medical certificates and safety factors.

There is a clear absence of the periodic maintenance.

There is an excellent follow up for the water quality results from the desalination plants through conducting periodic tests.

Most of people who work in the desalination plants, have low IV qualifications.

There is no awareness activities targeted the workers in the desalination plants because they need such activities in order to be more qualified.

Desalination plants cause a lot of problems like noise, dust, crowd, accidents.

But there is acceptance from the people for the presence of these plants near their houses.

Main Subjects

Earth Sciences, Water and Environment

Topics

• Saline water
• Palestine
• Gaza Strip
• Environmental aspects
• Water treatment plants

No. of Pages

79

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-615260