Ghunmi, Lina Abu

Lina Abu Ghunmi

University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

Biography

 Dr. Lina Abu-Ghunmi is an Assistant Researcher at the Water and ‎Energy Centre of the University of Jordan. She holds a Ph.D. in ‎Environmental Engineering from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, a M.Sc. degree in civil engineering from the University of Jordan, and B.Sc. degree in ‎chemical engineering from the University of Jordan in Amman. She has ‎published several works in her research areas that include water and wastewater ‎management, biological and physical treatment technologies and reuse options in addition to biogas production and nanotechnology. She is teaching undergraduate and graduate-level courses in water and the environment in the Faculty of ‎Engineering at the University of Jordan.

 

Abstract

Grey Water Concept Toward Mitigating Water Shortage

Jordan ranks as one of the ten poorest countries in terms of access to the water resources. It suffers severe from water shortage, reaching up to 25% of its water budget, which has been caused by water scarcity, its semi-arid climate and high population growth rate (3.9%). 

The government of Jordan, in response to this critical situation and in order to reduce the gap between supply and demand, has begun exploring opportunities for employing nonconventional resources. Therefore the reclaimed domestic wastewater constitutes 6% of Jordan’s water budget and is mainly used in irrigation. However, the continuously steep increase in water shortage has negatively impacted the quality of raw wastewater, and in the energy sector, increasing scarcity has resulted in the deterioration of the reclaimed domestic wastewater quality (reclaimed water of poor quality cannot meet the standards for reuse). These issues spotlight the centrality of sustainability and water integrity concepts in any plan seeking to manage the water sector. For this reason, the Jordanian government in 2009 adopted the grey water concept as a cornerstone in its 5-year water strategy.   

Grey water consists of wastewaters resulting from household cleaning activities. It encompasses wastewater from showers, laundries, kitchen sinks and washbasins, but does not include toilet wastewater. Grey water concept aims at separating household wastewaters based on their quantity and quality in order to maximize resources recovery and thereby minimize costs. The socio-economic dimension is an important issue that determines the applicability and successfulness of grey water concept. Therefore this paper will make a comparative study on the applicability of grey water concept in Jordan and in the UAE based on different stakeholders and cost affordability issues.