أبحاث كلية الدراسات العليا والأبحاث

Water 2022, 14(3): 377

 https://doi.org/10.3390/w14030377

Abstract

Groundwater, the main drinking water source in the West Bank, is highly vulnerable to pollution given the karstic nature of the aquifer. This study was aimed at screening the quality of groundwater used for water supply, in terms of physicochemical and microbiological properties, and heavy metals concentrations. Attention was given to groundwater chemistry, using piper and Durov diagrams, to assess potent impact of pollution on groundwater. Twenty-nine groundwater samples from selected wells, representing the different groundwater fields in the West Bank, were collected and analyzed. The results revealed that the concentration of the ions and parameters affecting the aesthetic and health related water quality, such as Cl−, Na+, NH4+, TDS, and NO3−, and selected (semi) metals, including Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, Cd, and As, are within the limits recommended for drinking water. The dominant cations and anions were in the order of Ca2+ > Na+ > Mg2+ > K+ > NH4+ and HCO3− > Cl− > NO3− > SO42−, respectively. The total average groundwater hardness is approximately 2.1 mmol/L and can be attributed to calcium (approximately 60%) and magnesium. The major ground water types in the West Bank were fresh water (Ca-Mg-HCO3), fresh water mixed with another water type (Ca-Mg-Na-HCO3 or Ca-Mg-HCO3-Cl), and extreme water type (Na-Ca-Mg- HCO3-Cl or Na-Ca-HCO3-Cl) showing high TDS, Cl− and Na+. Signs of pollution, namely elevated levels of nitrate and ammonium, were, however, observed even in some deep wells (>600 m), despite the thick cover of soil, tapping the Lower Ceneomanian confined aquifer

Thaher, R.A.; Mahmoud, N.; Al-Khatib, I.A.; Hung, Y.-T.

Water 2022, 14, 849
https://doi.org/10.3390/w14060849

Abstract 
The main aim of this research was to assess the problems of using cesspits in the non-sewered areas in the West Bank of Palestine by the means of a questionnaire, with a sample size of 485 households, targeting the cesspits’ owners. People who use cesspits for house onsite wastewater management are not satisfied with them, and most of them complain about high disturbance during discharge of the cesspits (75.5%). Emptying cesspits represents a financial burden, costing 6% of the households’ monthly income. The frequency of cesspits’ emptying decreases substantially when there are onsite GWTPs. People accept that constructing a house with an onsite GWTPs when supported by external funding, and to a much lesser extent when they need to fund them themselves. The majority of people prefer sewerage networks for wastewater management (74.8%), followed by onsite GWTPs (15.5%), and cesspits are the least preferable (9.5%). Therefore, a more technically sound individual home onsite wastewater management system should be applied to replace cesspits so as to solve their negative implications on the socio-economic, environmental, and health aspects in the Palestinian rural communities.

Anabtawi, F., Mahmoud, N., Al-Khatib, I.A., Hung, Y.-T

Abstract 
Rainwater harvesting is considered one of the most important water resources in the Palestinian countryside. In this research, the study area chosen for the study was Yatta town in Hebron city. 75 water samples were collected from 74 cisterns in a number of neighborhoods in Yatta, and a structured household survey was conducted with the same households where the water samples were collected. Statistical analysis was made using the SPSS software. An analysis for the samples was made using ICP-MS to test the existence of a number of heavy metals, namely Pb, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn and Cd. The results were compared with the WHO and Palestinian limits for drinking water quality. Considering the metals Mn, Co, Cu and Cd, neither of the samples exceeded any of the two limits. For the metals, Pb, Cr, and Ni, two samples exceeded both limits. For the metal, Zn, one sample exceeded the WHO limit only. Sources of pollution by heavy metals of the harvested rainwater were identified by means of a questionnaire distributed to the households. The results showed that except for nickel and the water collection surface of the cistern factor, there is no direct relationship between the factors and activities that may contribute to contaminate harvested rainwater with heavy metals and the existence of heavy metals beyond local and international limits. Based on the questionnaire and literature: Possible sources of lead and zinc are the roof, storage tanks, distribution systems and plumbing; possible sources of chromium are road dust, asbestos brakes and anthropogenic activities occurring around the house; possible source of nickel is leaching from metals in contact with harvested rainwater such as pipes and fittings which are used to collect the harvested rainwater. In addition, an assessment of the potential health risks due to contamination of the harvested rainwater by heavy metals was made for all the samples that exceeded either WHO limit or the Palestinian limit or both. The Chronic Daily Intake (CDI) and the Health Risk Index (HRI) were calculated. The assessment was made for both adults and children. The results showed that all the samples are considered safe (HRI < 1), which means that there are no potential health risks for consumers.

Al-Subu, N.M., Issam A. Al-Khatib, I.A., Kontogianni, S

In: Tirado, D.M., Molina, B.I (Editors) (2021). Public-Private Partnerships: Trends, Perspectives and Opportunities. Series: Business Issues, Competition and Entrepreneurship, BISAC: BUS079000, ISBN: 978-1-68507-184-4, 
Nova Science Publishers
https://doi.org/10.52305/EXYV3481

Pref.

Accurate determination of solid waste generation, treatment and disposal options is strongly crucial for an effective planning of solid waste management (SWM) systems. Successful planning of the SWM system is highly influenced by the social acceptance of local residents to the environmental challenges they have to tackle. This is the main scope of this paper that presents the outcomes of an extended field survey in two Palestinian districts; Nablus and Jenin. The residents’ concerns and attitudes towards implementing SWM facilities were addressed via 381 structured questionnaires in each district. The respondents were able to highlight the major concerns and attitudes and provide feedback on the level of perceived acceptance or opposition to any future implementation of SWM facilities. The main parameters used to correlate the concernattitude findings of the research were the age, gender, locality type and number of previous visits to a SWM facility. In effect, a discriminant analysis was conducted to assess the influence of concerns on the respondents’ attitudes towards SWM facilities. Overall, 65% of the respondents felt pessimistic about the future of the SWM systems and the ability of the local authorities to address the emerging major issues. Only 38% of the respondents were concerned about the recycling practices undertaken locally. Rural respondents displayed the highest concern levels and by far perceived unfair implementation of a new SWM facility in their proximity. In particular the residents’ opposition levels were 69% for incinerators, 70% for landfills and 65% for recycling facilities. The stated denial to any kind of SWM facilities, as well as the high levels of “not concerned” people describe the lack of environmental culture and the limited dissemination of environmental information the Palestinian community needs for a better future. The public-private partnerships might be one of the key elements for a successful SWM system that can promote environmental sustainability for the domestic society.

Al-Khatib, I.A., Shanaa Y., Khader, A.I

Medical waste in Palestine continues to pose a threat to public health and the environment, although there has been some improvement in its management. However, this improvement has not reached the required level. Medical waste is collected mixed with municipal waste in most communities in the West Bank, Palestine. There is a treatment for infectious medical waste in some hospitals through sterilization or by uncontrolled incineration in incinerators that do not meet the specifications required for burning waste. Management of medical waste in the city of Nablus needs further study and analysis, particularly the sustainable management of solid waste in the city’s hospitals. The aim of this chapter is to identify sustainable development opportunities in managing medical solid waste in Nablus hospitals, and create sustainable management model for managing hospitals healthcare waste. It utilized a qualitative investigation to collect data for the study that was carried out in two hospitals in Nablus city (a governmental hospital: Rafidia hospital, and a charitable hospital: St. Luke’s hospital). Qualitative methods were used to evaluate and understand the medical waste management process and the healthcare waste management (HCWM) in the selected hospitals. Furthermore, Interviews were conducted with key persons related to healthcare waste management in the Ministry of Health (MOH), Nablus Municipality (NM) and Environmental Quality Authority (EQA) for identification of strength points which lead to switching to a sustainable waste management system, and to design a system that deals with the healthcare waste generated from the studied facilities. Healthcare solid waste is dangerous and affects human health and the environment. Hence, development of appropriate management system is necessary. In the selected hospitals in the study area there was no budget for medical waste management system, which means shortage of tools and equipment for the sustainable medical waste management system. There are no training plans as well as medical waste learning materials. There is no medical waste management department or committee, even on the governmental level, despite the Palestinian Cabinet's decision No. 10 of 2012 on the medical waste management. It was found that the targeted hospitals in the research do not segregate all the medical wastes or treat the hazardous wastes. They suffer from absence of treatment and disposal ways. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was used to develop model for sustainable management for medical waste solid waste. AHP as Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) process was used to develop sustainable management model for healthcare solid waste in Nablus city hospitals. The sustainable model using AHP shows that waste treatment before disposal has the highest priority among main criteria (42.3%), followed by social and environmental aspects (27%) and waste management cost with (16.1%). In sub criteria, in waste handling procedure, waste segregation had the highest priority (70%); in waste management cost, recycling cost had the highest priority (46%), and in waste treatment the sub criteria with the highest priority is treatment before disposal (50%). Lastly, in terms of overall ranking of sub-criteria with respect to goal, treatment before disposal had the highest priority (21.1%), followed by social and environmental aspects (27%), and waste segregation (10.9%) are the top three sub-criteria. Using AHP, the model found that Plasma Pyrolysis is the best method to treat medical wastes.

Al-Qorom, S.M., Al-Khatib, I.A., Al-Sari’, M.I., Kontogianni ,S., Fathi M. Anayah, F.M

In: Tirado, D.M., Molina, B.I (Editors) (2021). Public-Private Partnerships: Trends, Perspectives and Opportunities. Series: Business Issues, Competition and Entrepreneurship, BISAC: BUS079000, ISBN: 978-1-68507-184-4,
. Nova Science Publishers
https://doi.org/10.52305/EXYV3481

This study focuses on dental solid waste (DSW) management in central and northern Palestine, in particular Nablus and Salfit governorates. Qualitative and quantitative data was retrieved to serve the overall investigation through structured questionnaires and on-site sampling. The overall results showed that dentists’ attitude towards sustainable DSW management is positive. In particular 71% are willing to participate in future waste separation and recycling programs. However, 60% of the dentists’ do not own the appropriate equipment to perform waste separation, recovery and recycling. Age, gender, location of the clinic, and level of education, are significantly affecting dentists’ waste management behavior. The DSW generation rate is 57.2 g/patient/day. Infectious/potentially infectious waste represents 68.3% of total fraction, whereas non-infectious 4.8% and domestic-type waste 26.9% (by weight). The infectious and potentially infectious waste fraction is composed mainly by: sharps (13.1%), amalgam (0.8%), blood soaked dressings (43.3%), Paper (11.3%), plastic and rubber (0.3%) and extracted teeth (31.3%).

Banishamseh, R.A., Al-Khatib, I.A., Al-Sari’, M.I., Kontogianni S., Anayah
F.M

In: Tirado, D.M., Molina, B.I (Editors) (2021). PublicPrivate Partnerships: Trends, Perspectives and Opportunities. Series: Business Issues, Competition and Entrepreneurship, BISAC: BUS079000, ISBN: 978-1- 68507-184-4, Nova Science Publishers.
https://doi.org/10.52305/EXYV3481

This field research focuses on the evaluation of healthcare waste (HCW) management practices applied in Medical Laboratories (MLs) in Nablus and Ramallah governorates, Palestine. Totally 100 MLs were selected representing a variety of legal statuses (governmental, private and Non-Governmental Organization‟s). Eight out of 100 MLs were further selected to participate into a HCW sampling research that measured and characterized the generated waste fraction. Overall results showed that less than half of the MLs present an excellent environmental performance (as per a predetermined set of indicators) and approximately two thirds of them pre-treat HCW prior to final disposal. MLs HCW comprises of household-like wastes (45.50%), waste mixed with infectious waste (21.07%), tissues and pathological waste (18.48), plastic waste resulting from medical processes (7.18%), sharps (4.88%) and absorbent waste (2.89%). Following that and having identified that two parameters, namely the number of (i) samples taken from the patients and (ii) the number of tests performed, largely affect the overall HCW generation, a HCW generation pattern was developed for the study area.

Anayah, F.M., Al-Khatib, I.A., Hashlamoun, M.W.

In: Tirado, D.M., Molina, B.I (Editors) (2021). Public-Private Partnerships: Trends, Perspectives and Opportunities. Series: Business Issues, Competition and Entrepreneurship, BISAC: BUS079000, ISBN: 978-1-68507-184-4,

DOI: https://doi.org/10.52305/EXYV3481. Nova Science Publishers. 

Developing countries suffer from high rates of population growth with consequently greater amounts of waste; electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) generated. In Palestine, WEEE is typically shipped from Israel for reuse, recycling, or disposal, yet these processes are costly, unsafe, and sometimes illegal. Three towns in Hebron District, namely Idhna, Deir Samit, and Beit Awwa, currently receive large amounts of WEEE. Information was collected from service workshops, respective municipalities, and non-governmental organizations in the area. More specifically, 14 service workshops were visited, representatives from the three municipalities were surveyed, and two experts in the field were interviewed. Almost 90% of the WEEE comes from Israel through local traders who sell the WEEE to service workshops. Recycling of WEEE is often carried out by a manual and primitive separation of aluminum, copper, and iron. These materials are sold back to Israeli businesses through local traders. Safety of workers, facilities, and surrounding environments is not a priority for existing service workshops. Open burning is the common practice for recycling and disposal of WEEE in the study area. Open burning pollutes air, soil, and groundwater; therefore, local municipalities conduct campaigns to raise awareness in the local community regarding environmental consequences. Since the WEEE industry is a major income source for local residents, necessary governmental interventions to manage the WEEE system are suggested. The composition of WEEE for various equipment existing in the local market is described to promote responsible investment, while making this sector environmentally sound and economically profitable.

Hung, Y.-T.; Abdul Aziz, H.; Al-Khatib, I.A.; Abdel Rahman, R.O.; Cora- Hernandez, M.G.

Water 2021, 13, 330.

No Absrtact 

Anayah, F., Al-Khatib, I.A., Hejaz, B.

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 193:41. 
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08791-4

The availability of safe drinking water and the proper management of wastewater in healthcare facilities are important pillars for maintaining safety of workers, patients, and visitors and protecting human health and environment. Water and sanitation services at 495 healthcare facilities in the West Bank of Palestine are assessed using the results of PCBS and MoH (2014) survey study. Services are reassessed after the COVID10 pandemic using personal interviews with experts from healthcare facilities, regulatory authorities, and service providers. The results show that 92.1% of healthcare facilities were connected to public water networks, 12.9% of them purchased water tanks, and 10.8% of them depended on harvested rainwater which may cause contamination and waterborne diseases. Regardless the source of freshwater, the water quality has to be regularly examined and compared to local guidelines and international standards for health promotion. Almost 63.4% of healthcare facilities were not connected to wastewater networks and used either tight or porous cesspits. Once these cesspits are filled off, wastewater is randomly disposed into nearby valleys causing adverse environmental impacts on air, water, and land resources. Medical wastewater of hazardous substances should be treated before discharged to wastewater networks. Experts assured that although heightened procedures have been made by service providers to curb the spread of the COVID-19 disease, yet, more consistent protocols and stringent procedures are crucial. There have not been any new directives or procedures regarding the management of water supplies and wastewater services in the healthcare facilities. Stakeholder collaboration can help prevent the COVID-19 disease.

Maher Hamdan, Ahmad Abu-Awwad, and Maher Abu-Mad

In: International Journal of Water Resources Development. Volume 38, 2022 - Issue 3.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07900627.2021.1908236

https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2021.1908236
 

Limited water resources are among the main obstacles to development in Palestine. This research investigates farmers’ perceptions and willingness to use treated wastewater (TWW) for irrigation. Despite the availability of large quantities of TWW, just 11% of the interviewed farmers use it in irrigation. Just 24% of them confirmed that they had participated in awareness workshops related to TWW, but 75% stated they would be willing to use TWW for irrigation. We find that the main obstacles to the use of TWW in irrigation are availability of freshwater, non-availability of TWW and psychological aversion.