Description

Topic headlines: * General Introduction * Water and wastewater situation in KSA * Wastewater quality and standards * Conventional and natural wastewater treatment techniques * Future opportunities of water reuse in KSA * Water reuse risks and challenges * Reuse and Public awareness Population growth and increase in water demand are the main driving forces to further promote wastewater reclamation and reuse. The principal objective of wastewater treatment is generally to permit domestic and industrial effluents to be disposed of, or reused, without significant impacts on public health or aquatic ecosystems. However, this requires a paradigm shift in considering sewage as a "resource" instead of as "waste". Saudi Arabia is the third-largest per capita water user worldwide and has addressed the disparity between its renewable water resources and domestic demand primarily through desalination and the abstraction of non-renewable groundwater. Wastewater treatment can be an effective way to protect the environment and public health and reuse water safely through conventional treatment techniques such as membrane bioreactor and activated sludge. The high costs of conventional wastewater treatment methods, chemical use, energy consumption and requirements of skilled manpower for operation and maintenance, have encouraged planners and design makers to use natural systems such as soil aquifer treatment and constructed wetlands.