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Water reuse is the use of wastewater or reclaimed water from one application
such as municipal waste water treatment for another application such as
landscape watering. The reused water must be used for beneficial purposes
and in accordance with applicable rules. Some potential applications for the
reuse of waste water or reclaimed water include other industrial uses,
landscape irrigation, agricultural irrigation, aesthetic uses such as
fountains and fire protection. This system of reusing water is beneficial to
the Middle East and other regions because it has a small cost for building
recycling plants and transporting recycled water to other destinations. It
is also beneficial to the Middle East because tens of thousands of gallons
of water are used for agricultural and irrigational purposes and these can
be replaced with reused water which is not harmful but also not clean enough
to be drinkable. Another solution is updating and advancing engineering practices. One of these types of engineering practices is System modifications. These require making changes to an existing irrigation system or replacing an existing system with a new one. Because system modifications require the purchase of equipment, they are usually more expensive than field practices and management strategies. Another type of these practices are called field practices. Field practices are techniques that keep water in the field, distribute water more efficiently across the field, or encourage the retention of soil moisture. Examples of these practices include chiseling of extremely compacted soils, furrow disking to prevent run off, and leveling of the land to distribute water more evenly. Typically, field practices are not very costly. This is why it’s very beneficial to the middle east which although is very wealthy due to the oil reserves, but internally the countries are still developing their economies and require low cost irrigation techniques. Aquifer protection and recharge is another solution which can be practiced and administered locally in the Middle East. This is because over 60% of the water used by most Middle Eastern countries is pumped from aquifers. Extensive research has shown that overuse and pollution are common threats to urban water supplies. Some solutions for this are: vigorous programs of aquifer protection and recharge. Recharge techniques as digging pits or trenches to gather rainy-season water, or as technically challenging as injecting clean water under pressure into fissures or fractures in the surrounding bedrock. To protect aquifers, regulations are required to keep pumping rates. These should include measures to control competitive drilling, investment in ever-deeper wells, and careless dumping of wastes that often pollute ground water stocks. Another major solution is the pricing of water. Water has always been our single most important resource, unfortunately however because of its abundance in certain parts of the world, subsidies, easy access, and availability it has always been misused. The solution to this is to globally to a cost which will oblige people to respect its usage. It will also make the public aware of the predicament we face of water shortage.This is will be beneficial to many nations especially in the Middle East, because it enables aquifers to service people longer than their expected service time or (EST). For example, if an aquifer has an EST of 50 years, but if misused and abused it will last for 20 years. On the other hand, if the same aquifer is used adequately and conservatively it will last for 100 years, double or sometimes triple its EST. Landscaping is a solution for water conservation and is already being applied but not efficiently to the Middle East. Landscape irrigation is one of the methods of water conservation where in landscaping; plants that need little water are used thereby saving not only water but labor and fertilizer as well. A similar method is grouping plants with similar water needs. Another water use efficiency practice that can be applied to re residential landscape irrigation is the use of cycle irrigation methods to improve penetration and reduce runoff. Cycle irrigation provides the right amount of water at the right time and place, for optimal growth. Other practices include the use of low-perception-rate sprinklers that have better distribution uniformity, or drip irrigation systems. |
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