Although reclaimed wastewater reuse for agriculture is increasingly being recognized as an essential component in the management strategy for water shortage in the neighboring countries, such practice is still not officially followed for agriculture in Gaza Strip. There is now a master plan introduced by donor countries to construct three new WWTPs in Gaza Strip to replace the existing ones by the year 2020. Most of the reclaimed wastewater produced from these plants would be suitably managed for use in irrigation.

Environmental Limit Values for reuse of wastewater have been prepared by the Palestinian Standards Institute and the Palestinian Water Authority. However, these limit values have not been enforced so far. The draft Palestinian standards include quality standards for reuse of treated wastewater depending on the crops and areas to be irrigated. They further stipulate that some best practices have to be adopted when reusing wastewater. These include:

• Irrigation has to be stopped two weeks before harvesting period when treated wastewater used for productive crops and field crops, for animal feeding crops before grazing and falling products or that close to the ground has to be excluded.

• Sprinkler irrigation is prohibited.

• Use of treated wastewater is forbidden for irrigation of all vegetables

• Closed pipes have to be used when wastewater transported in areas with high soil permeability, which can affect the aquifer or surface water, used for drinking.

• Dilution of treated water, to meet the requested quality by mixing with fresh
  water in the treatment plant is forbidden.

Table 12: Recommended Guidelines by the Palestinian Standards Institute for Treated Wastewater Characteristics according to different applications

Table 12 (continued):

(-) Undefined

Table 12: Recommended Guidelines by the Palestinian Standards Institute for Treated Wastewater Characteristics according to different applications