Ramallah Wastewater Reuse Project

The Ramallah Wastewater Reuse Project is an urban water-reuse initiative in Palestine that captures treated wastewater from Ramallah’s wastewater treatment plant and redistributes it for non-portable uses, reduces pressure on scarce potable water resources.¹

The project’s vision is to “transform treated wastewater into a reliable urban resource” that supports greener public spaces, essential municipal services, and improved water efficiency, while preserving limited freshwater supplies for domestic use.² It seeks to substitute potable water with reclaimed wastewater for non-household uses such as irrigation, construction, and firefighting. It operates at city scale, serving multiple neighborhoods in Ramallah and demonstrating practical reuse solutions in a water-scarce urban context.³

To implement its vision, the project combines reuse access infrastructure, storage, and outreach elements to make treated wastewater usable across the city:^{4 5}

• Annual reuse volume: approximately 240,000 cubic meters per year.
• Reuse infrastructure:
• Filling station and local distribution network serving Al-Tireh, Baten Al-Hawa, and Jadwal neighborhoods
• Elevated storage reservoir enabling gravity-fed irrigation
• Pumping systems conveying treated effluent from the Tireh treatment plant to storage and reuse points
• Reuse applications:
• Irrigation of public gardens and parks
• Firefighting and construction uses
• Water filling for sites not directly connected to the reuse network
• Demonstration elements:
• Pilot gardens and landscaped areas using reclaimed water
• Promotion of efficient irrigation techniques (including drip irrigation)
• Ancillary component: Facility for further treatment of residual sludge to reduce pollution and explore fertilizer potential

The project advances water conservation, circular water use, and environmental sustainability by reallocating treated wastewater to non-potable urban uses. Visible reuse in public spaces strengthens social acceptance of reclaimed water and supports longer-term shifts toward efficient urban water management.⁶

The project is implemented by Anera in partnership with the Municipality of Ramallah. Funding at launch was provided by the Jim Pattison Foundation, the Vitol Foundation, and the Municipality of Ramallah. The project was launched on September 13, 2018, and was completed in 2020.^{7 8}