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Assessment of Performance of Wastewater Treatment Plants in Jordan

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 International Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vol., Issue. 1

Assessment of Performance of Wastewater

Treatment Plants in Jordan
Abed Al-Zahiri
Civil Engineering Department, Zarqa
University, tel:+962-5-3821100, fax: +962-5-
3821120, P.O.Box: 132222, Zarqa, Jordan
E-mail:[email protected]

ABSTRACT In the year of 2000, the demand of water was

Jordan is a small country facing limited water supplies and estimated to be about 1100 millions m3 (MCM), while
increasing population size due to natural growth and the available water from all sources (surface and
migrations due political instability in the region. Water ground water) was less than 850 MCM, indicating a
shortage is affecting water and wastewater treatment shortage of water of 250 MCM.
systems operations. The shortage of water has affected the individual
We will analyze the present state of WWTP's in Jordan. consumption. For example the water consumption in
The assessment will consider inflow and outflow rates, the year of 1998 was about 160 m3 /capita/yr and is
outflow quality, and treatment efficiency. The analysis is expected to fall to 90 m3/capita/yr in 2020, which is
important to identify needs for future development. very low in comparison to the international per capita
consumption level of 1000 m3/yr (Al-Zboon, 2002).
Keywords- Wastewater, treatment plants, water reuse,
Population growth caused an increase in water use and
wastewater characteristics, wastewater treatment, Jordan. wastewater production and as a result high demand for
1. INTRODUCTION wastewater treatment capacity. Natural population growth
in Jordan is increasing steadily. In addition, the size of
Jordan has faced the problem of water scarcity for many forced immigration is increasing due to continual political
years. Jordan is experiencing a surge in population growth instability in the region.
mainly due to political instability in the region.

Table1. Summary of Jordan’s population and Refugees Estimate for the years from 2010 to 2013.

2010 2011 2012 2013

Total Population 6,046,000a 6,181,000a 6,318,000a 6,459,000a

Number of Refugees at
450,900b 451,009b 302,700b 641,900b
the end of the year
a: Government Estimates, b: UNHCIR estimates
The wastewater treatment sector needs development even for industrial sector (WAJ, 2006). Reclaimed wastewater
without considering population growth which puts more is applied on soil, on cultivated as well as marginal
pressure on the existing treatment capacity. According to areas in various facilities, in irrigation, industry, and
Jordan’s Water Strategy for 2008-2022, there are about 40
for recharge of ground water.
% of the population are not served by sewer systems. The
annual production of sewerage systems is about 100 The reuse of reclaimed wastewater should be controlled
Million Cubic Meter (MCM) of effluent that is utilized by comprehensive environmental plan, which will take
primarily in agriculture in Jordan valley. into consideration safety actions relative to quality
This increase in water demand combined with the limited standard of released reclaimed wastewater, this requires
water resources adds high value to the use of reclaimed examination of physical-chemical and environmental
wastewater. The interest in wastewater reuse in various properties of applications on soil, plants, and
parts of the world has promoted the development of construction processes (MWI, 2002, and MWI/JVA/GTZ,
wastewater and secondary effluent treatment 2002). The level of treatment is determined by the
technologies (Consolated Consultants, 2012). designated beneficial uses of the receiving water bodies
(Hammer, 1996).
In Jordan reclaimed wastewater is utilized in agriculture.
The agricultural demand of water is estimated to be The current quality standards of reclaimed wastewater are
73% of the total water consumption, while 22% of obtained from the Standard number 893 of year 2002
water is used for domestic needs and only 5% is used which are shown in Table 2.

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 International Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vol., Issue. 2

Table2. Summary of Selected Wastewater Quality reclaimed wastewater was compared with Jordanian
Properties limits according to Jordan Standards. standards to determine its suitability for reuse. The
agriculture demands are mainly directed towards the
Release Groundw Jordan Valley, where the majorly of Jordan’s agricultural is
Restricted
Property Unit to ater located.
Irrigation
Streams Recharge
The majority of these treatment plants are stressed. The
PH 6 to 9 6 to 9 6 to 9 treated wastewater is considered an integral part of
Jordan’s sustainable water resources system. About 70%
BOD5 mg/L 60 15 30 of the population living in urban areas is serviced with
sewer collection system. The annual treated wastewater
COD mg/L 150 50 100 effluent form theses serviced areas is about 80 MCM.
The two largest wastewater treatment plants in Jordan are
DO mg/L >1 >2 >2 the As-Samra and Irbid (Wadi AL-Arab) WWTP.
The design capacity of the As-Samra WWTP is 68,000
TSS mg/l 60 50 50 m3/day and Irbid (Wadi Al-Arab) WWTP design capacity
is 21,000 m3/day (Mohsen, 2008).
NO3-N mg/l 45 30 30
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
CFU/
E coli 100 1,000 < 2.2 100 The impact of population growth is shown as the increase
ml in annual inflow of WWTP’s. Data sets for the WWTP’s
are collected from ministry, government agencies, and
In Jordan there are twenty three municipal treatment visits to the plants. The data sets include inflow and
plants, which cover most of the major cities and outflow rates, water quality measurements.
towns. Some plants with small capacity have gaps in their data
These plants serve about 56% of the population. The total collection, however, the major WWTPs have sufficient
inflow to these plants is around 216,412 m3/d, of data for analysis. In the following analysis we select the
which 186223 m3/d inflow to Asamra wastewater plants with largest capacities. The selected plants treat
treatment plant (ASTP) (Bataineh et al., 2002). about 90% of the domestic wastewater in Jordan and
Jordanian standards for reclaimed wastewater serve more than 2 million inhabitants (Bataineh et
(JS893/1995) try to regulate both water reuse and al.,2002).
environmental discharges. The largest plant is As samra wastewater treatment plant
Jordanian standards allow discharging treated (ASTP) in Jordan and treat more than 76% of collected
wastewater to valleys and streams when it meets the municipal wastewater, most of the environmental studies
specific criteria for many parameters such as BOD, concentrate on the performance of this plant and the
COD, TSS, and Escherichia coli bacteria. possible actions to enhance its efficiency. ASTP
utilizes stabilization ponds as the treatment process as
In the present time, the reclaimed wastewater is used shown in Table 2. ASTP has an area of 181 hectare and
for restricted agriculture either near the plants or three units (Asa’ad, 2006). There are two aerobic
downstream after mixing with natural surface water ponds, four facultative ponds, and four maturation
(Bataineh et al., 2002). More than 70 million m3/year ponds in each unit.
of reclaimed water, around 10% of the total national
water supply, is used either directly or mostly The effluent from the ASTP to the Zarqa River
indirectly in Jordan and will increases to a share of represents more than 80% of the total flow in the
more than 15% within the next 30 years (Ammary, river during dry weather. River ’s water contains high
2007, and Bataineh et al., 2002). concentrations of organic matter, inorganic minerals,
salts, and heavy metals (Al-Zboon, 2002).
In this study, characteristics of wastewater for the four
seven largest wastewater treatment plants, which are Al- 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Samra (ASTP), Baqa, Wadi Al-arab, Irbid (ITP), Aqaba,
and Salt were determined. Characterization of The change of inflow over 5 year period from 2007 to
wastewater was evaluated in terms of measuring 2012 is selected as an indictor of population growth effect.
chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen The geographic locations with significant increase in
demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS), total inflow rate are the locations with biggest population
dissolved solids (TDS), and dissolved oxygen (DO) for growth. The table indicates that there is a surge in
the influent and effluent from the selected plants. The wastewater inflow in several parts of Jordan. This surge in
performance of the major wastewater treatment plants wastewater inflow is due to population growth and
(WWTPs) was evaluated and the quality of the expansion of sewer system network.

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 International Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vol., Issue. 3

Table2. Wastewater Treatment Plants in Jordan showing inflow levels for years 2007 and 2012.

3.1 Inflow Trends network is undergoing significant expansion and many

urban centers are still using septic systems which do not
The wastewater inflow for the largest five wastewater reflect directly on wastewater inflow. However, urban
treatment plants shows variable increase in inflows. The centers where population numbers have increased show
various levels of increase reflect the impact of variables significant rise in wastewater inflows like Irbid and Salt.
other than population growth. The wastewater collection

Figure3.The increase in inflow from 2007 to 2012 for five WWTPs

3.2 Water Quality Trends average indicate high loading level for wadi arab than
other plants. This is due to the diversity of inflow from
The available data contain measurements of essential storm and urban runoff and storage in the dam. The
water quality parameters like pH, TSS, BOD, COD, outflow show TSS levels exceeding limit of 60 mg/l for
ammonia, and DO. The TSS for the large WWTP are Irbid, Wadi arab, and Aqaba.
summarized in Figure 1. The inflow and outflow annual

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 International Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vol., Issue. 4

TSS (mg/L)
1000 910
900
800 753.667
722.3
668
700
576
600 541
500 441
400 344
300
200
75.8 54 67
100 13 12 5.417 35.3
5
0
Influent Effluent

AS-SAMRA Irbid Ramtha wadi hassan Baqa'a wadi arab Aqaba WSP Salt

Figure 4. Total Suspended Solids (TSS) Inflow and Outflow of major WWTPs in Jordan
The COD level is an indicator of inflow pollution level WWTPs show high levels of COD exceeding standard of
and treatment efficiency. As samra, Aqaba, and Irbid 150 mg/L for outflow.

COD (mg/L)
2500

1992
2000 1819.1
1629.25
1505
1500 1372
1296
1156.8

1000

500 356
224.5
147 71.8
0 66 53.83 65 6
0
Influent Effluent

AS-SAMRA Irbid Ramtha wadi hassan Baqa'a wadi arab Aqaba WSP Salt

Figure2. COD levels for Inflow and Outflow of major WWTPs in Jordan.
Dissolved oxygen is an indicator of healthiness of treated WWTPs. However, the annual averages are consistent
wastewater. There are gaps in DO measurement for with the treated wastewater standard of 1 mg/L.

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 International Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vol., Issue. 5

Figure3. COD levels for Inflow and Outflow of major WWTPs in Jordan.

4. DISCUSSION
There are several challenges facing the water sector in [3] Ammary B (2007). Wastewater reuse in Jordan:
Jordan. These challenges include increasing population Present status and future plans, Desalination J.
due to normal growth rates and incoming migrations due Volume 21 1 , Issues 1 -3, 1 0, pp. 1 64-1 76.
to regional conflict. The elevated loadings degraded [4] Asa’ad S (2006). performance of Alsamra Waste
surface and groundwater qualities and put more stress on Stabilization Pond, MSc. thesis, university of
WWTP’s. Jordan.
Jordan’s population projections for the year 2020 is about [5] Bataineh F, Najjar M, Malkawi S (2002)
9.9 million with 65% of the populations will be served Wastewater Reuse in water demand management
with sewer service. The projected sewerage generation is forum Amman Jordan.
about 237 MCM, which is about three times the sewerage [6] Consolated Consultants, 2012. Environmental &
generation from the current population estimates (Abu- Social Impact Assessment Study for The Expansion
Taleb, 2000). of As-Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant, Samra
Wastewater Treatment Plant. Final ESIA report.
The regulation on industrial discharge to the public sewer
collection lines is loosely enforced in Jordan. [7] Demographic and Health Survey (DHC, 2012).
Therefore, industrial effluent from various types of Jordan
industries with varying industrial wastewater strengths are [8] Hammer MJ (1 996). Water and wastewater
currently being discharged into public sewers collection technol. third edition, Prentice –hall. Inc
lines and eventually treated by municipal WWTP using
standard technologies that is used to treat domestic [9] Ministry of Water and Irrigation (2002): Standard
sewerage. As result, when released, the treated effluent Specification “Water – Reclaimed Domestic
from the municipal WWTP is less desirable for Wastewater”, No. 893/2002
agricultural purposes. [10] Ministry of Water and Irrigation/JVA/GTZ (2002):
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 International Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vol., Issue. 6

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