Water Reuse and Food Security Project in the West Bank

Palestine

This grant assisted farmers outside of the city of Jenin to utilize reclaimed waste water (RWW) through the newly rehabilitated Jenin Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP). The project achieved its objectives including: 1. Contributed to increasing the amount of available irrigation water through facilitating the farmer’s access to 3,500 cubic meters daily in northwest Jenin. 2. Increased the area of irrigated agricultural land by 315 dunums (31.5 hectares). 3. Increased the agricultural income of several beneficiary farmers in northwest Jenin by approximately 27% in first year. 4. Increased the availability of alfalfa in the local market which filled part of the gap in the demand of fodders and consequently is expected to reduce the fodder prices. This has the impact of improving household incomes of approximately 28,619 livestock breeders all over the West Bank. 5. Contributed to reducing the use of scarce drinking water resources for agricultural purposes as 143,840 m3 of reclaimed wastewater (RWW) were used in the first year. 6. Succeeded in reducing the environmental pollution caused by the dumping of untreated wastewater in the valleys. 7. Reduced the fines paid by the Palestinian National Authority to Israel through reducing pollution. The project achieved these objectives through the implementation of the following activities: 1. Establishment of farmers’ cooperative, which is currently responsible for operating the water distribution network 2. Conducting a technical study and design of the distribution network. 3. Conducting a baseline survey and beneficiary selection. 4. Installing a distribution network of 20 km of metal and polyethylene pipes (2-8 inches in diameter) and all necessary valves and fittings. The network can accommodate up to 10,000 m3 of water, which is the expected maximum output from the treatment plant when it is fully operational in 5 -7 years. The networks have the capacity to serve more than 5,000 dunums of agricultural land. 5. Direct beneficiaries included 35 farmers who received assistance to install subsurface drip system to irrigate 230 dunums of alfalfa, while 12 farmers installed drip system to irrigate 60 dunums of fruit trees and 5 farmers used their own irrigation systems to irrigate 35 dunums of planted orchards, while 10 other were connected to the network and will start using water on their own. 6. Capacity building activities included three study tours, 17 training days, extension visits and face-to-face coaching.