Sustainable and beneficial options for reusing treated wastewater in Muscat, Oman

About 70,000 m³/d of Treated wastewater is currently produced in Muscat, Oman, by a governmental company (Haya Water). The municipality is partially utilizing the treated effluents in landscape irrigation while the excess treated effluents are discharged to evaporating ponds nearby the major treatment plants in Muscat. These evaporating ponds are raising environmental concerns including health and aesthetic issues. Moreover, much higher TE are expected to be produced in Muscat from the treatment plants in the coming few years (more than 100,000 m³/d by 2012 and 160,000 m³/d by 2020). Therefore, sustainable and beneficial reuse options are needed for the produced treated effluents especially in this region where water resources are very limited. The main objective of this research project is to implement a comparative study of six potential reuse options for treated wastewater in Muscat, Oman. The six options include: urbane reuse, agriculture reuse, industrial reuse, groundwater recharge, potable reuse, and energy generation. Hence, the guiding goal for this project is to promote the conservation of the country's water resources by recycling treated municipal wastewater for different potential uses. This should lower the demand on finite water resources; support business; and introduce reliable and potentially lower cost water sources for industry in the long-term. According to the produced water quality and the reuse option standards, it was found that the following three reuse options are more suitable for Muscat: 1) urban reuse, 2) industrial reuse, and 3) agricultural reuse. However, cost benefit analysis has to be conducted to verify the suggested ranking of the reuse options.