An American USAID-MERC grant has been awarded to an Israeli-Palestinian research team to address the issue of regenerating polluted waterways in the West Bank, and increasing drinking water quality.
The grant of over US$650,000 will help the research team, jointly led by Ben Gurion University researcher Dr. Moshe Herzberg (above) and Prof. Mohammed Saleem Ali-Shtayeh of the Biodiversity & Environmental Research Center in Nablus will be used to increase the clean water supply in the region through addressing various methods for water purification.
The main focus of the team’s research will be a study into using Reverse Osmosis (RO) to reclaim secondary wastewater. This is a process that uses RO membranes to separate clean water out from fouled water or salt water. However when using RO to produce clean water from wastewater, performance of the membrane is reduced due to a build-up of a microbial film that forms from trapped particles of bacteria on the membrane.
The team will also focus on the adhesion properties of the biofilm, microbial community structure, growth kinetics, and chemical structure, which will help them to find ways of treating the bacterial growths.
The study will also look at innovative ways to reduce the biofouling of the membranes and sustainable ways to clean the membranes once they are fouled. The techniques developed by the research team will be applied to improve water quality in the Middle East as well as increasing access to clean water.
For further reading, see:
http://www.greenprophet.com/2010/07/19/24670/palestine-israel-water-grant/