Wastewater

OBJECTIVES

The specific objectives of the Water Technologies Department with regard to wastewater are:
1. Identify, develop and adapt technically sound and economically feasible treatment technologies for urban and industrial wastewater, including advanced membrane technologies.
2. Establish reference technical standards for wastewater treatment technologies and for urban and industrial wastewater reuse.
3. Carry out studies to determine costs of wastewater treatment using existing technologies or using other newly promising technologies under prevalent conditions in Kuwait.
4. Identify, develop and adapt treatment technologies for oil-produced brine with focus on possibilities for reuse of treated water and/or environmentally safe disposal of salts and other contaminants.

EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF A WASTED RESOURCE

Wastewater is the only water resource available in Kuwait that increases with time. Only a percentage of this resource is currently used for greenery purposes. With further processing, this huge quantity of water can be freely and safely utilized for all purposes except personal use.

Studies are in progress to find suitable cost effective methods to improve the quality of this water to make it friendlier to environment and public health. The Water Technologies Department is engaged in laboratory studies using soil columns to evaluate the improvement in the quality of the treated wastewater through Soil Aquifer Treatment (SAT) taking into account the soil characteristics of Kuwait. The results suggest that SAT should be applicable in Kuwait for the renovation of treated wastewater for irrigation purposes. A pilot project has been completed that investigated the recharge of the near-surface aquifer in the Sulaibiya area with treated wastewater through spreading basins. The study results indicated a significant improvement in water quality as the infiltrating water passed through the unsaturated zone.

A pilot study evaluated the technical and economic feasibility of using micro filtration techniques for wastewater treatment by RO. The results revealed that micro filtration can produce a steady quality of filtered water suitable for direct feed for RO. Significant cost reduction and higher reliability of supply can be achieved by using such techniques.

THE APPLICATION OF THE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS

Based on the recommendations from numerous studies carried out by the Water Technologies Department, the government launched a privately owned project to Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) a highly advanced treatment plant in Sulaibiya. The implementation of this project will provide large quantities of water for non-potable uses.

The proper utilization of the purified water will eventually reduce the consumption of freshwater, which will be reflected in a substantial reduction of the funds required for continuous installation of desalination plants to meet the staggering increase in water demand. Furthermore, this scheme will make available to Kuwait a huge additional water resource that will increase with time.