48. Khalid, M. An Integrated Approach in Water and Sanitation. Save the Children Federation, 1990, 10 pp.
In Arabic only.

Most of the small rural communities of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank do not have proper sewage systems for the removal and treatment of sewage water. These communities rely on soakage pits that are usually designed to serve single households. These pits require digging, sometimes into rocky grounds, which increases the risk of contamination of the aquifer. Because of poor drainage capacity of some West Bank soils, frequent hyper-saturation and need for repair, these collection/soaking systems often fail, especially during the rainy season. In addition, these pits must be emptied frequently which creates an ongoing expense for the homeowner. Moreover, waste water which is discharged deep into the ground cannot be reused for agriculture thus wasting a valuable resource, especially in the Gaza Strip which faces a critical water shortage.

During the past few years various international and local agencies have attempted to link rural communities to potable water supplies, however most have not considered the resulting generation of unprecedented amounts of waste water.

Based on ten years experience, Save the Children has found that unless a sewage disposal system is introduced with a new water project, the health benefits could be nullified by the hazards of improperly disposed waste water.

Central systems require high capital investments, maintenance systems and approval of the Israeli military authorities and are impractical for many rural communities. SCF suggests an alternative waste water disposal system which allows treated effluent to be reused safely for the irrigation of crops. The system is the subsurface drainage technique (SDT) which consists of two phases: a primary sedimentation phase where solids settle out, and a secondary phase where the effluent flows underground from a tank into a field, through perforated pipes. Sewage is treated as it seeps through the soil that surrounds the pipes.