Seawater, Shellfish & Fish Quality Assessment in Gaza Strip, Palestine
Proposal Concept Document
Submitted to:
Islamic Development Bank –IDB
JEDDAH- SAUDI ARABIS
Contact Person
Prof. Dr. Samir Afifi
Faculty of Science – IUG, Gaza- Palestine
e-mail:
Mob.: 00972 59 9465665
October, 2008
1- Brief Analysis:
1.2 Present status
The Gaza Strip is a coastal area along the eastern Mediterranean Sea, about 42 km long and between 6 -12 km wide. The area of the Gaza strip is about 365 km2 densely populated with an estimated population of over 1.5 million inhabitants. For political reasons (28 years of Israeli occupation), Gaza Strip area was excluded from the development plans of the Israeli officials. The seashore is the only recreational area in Gaza Strip.
Approximately one half of the population is connected with a collection sewage system. The rest of the population relies on latrines connected to unsealed vaults. Gray water is disposed via narrow surface channels, the majority of which meets to form larger channels which in turn transport its content into the sea water. In Gaza Strip, limited numbers of wastewater treatment facilities were established, most of which does not work properly or not at all.
Another major problem that increases the health risks from using seawater for recreation, is the limitation of treatment facilitates and method of effluent disposal. The sewage is either disposed near the sea shore (sands) or few meters inside the seawater. This brings the bathers into a close contact with contaminated water, which clearly is a public health hazard.
Recreational waters generally contain a mixture of pathogenic and non-pathogenic microbes derived from sewage; sewage effluent; industrial processes; farming activity; and wild life; in addition to any truly indigenous microorganisms. This mixture can present a hazard to bathers where an infective dose of the pathogen colonizes a suitable growth site in the body and leads to a disease.
Due to strict travel limitation imposed by the Israelis on Palestinians and the limited recreational areas, a significant number of infrastructure installations are located along the beach in recent years to encourage local and foreign tourism. Unplanned infrastructural development is a part of the general pattern of growth of population growth and urban expansion. Human growth and mal-managed activity has almost always been the major cause of pollution of the surrounding areas, which includes in this particular situation, the only recreational source in Gaza.
The project is a priority due to the following reasons:
· Lack of effective and regular monitoring and assessment programs for drinking seawater and shellfish quality
· Power shortages forced the authorities to discharge untreated sewage into the beach, posing severe potential public health risks.
· An environmental impact of the seawater pollution along Gaza does not affect only the local environment but also other regional Mediterranean countries.
· There are few published data showing that the problem of pollution was not so severe before the latest political complications and the fuel shortage problem.
Analogous to Gaza case, the beach monitoring activities are limited or not available in many other countries in the region. This project could be a good opportunity to facilitate the regional joint cooperation in the field. The project aims to build a "Middle East Beach Watch- MEBW" society, which will take care of the beach quality in the regional level and assist in reducing both health and environmental impacts through related staff training, conducting monitoring program and launching public awareness campaign.
1.2 Value of Coastal Zone Resource
The seawaters and beaches quality monitoring and assessment is considered as a vital part of the integrated coastal zone management program. The coastal area is important from an economical point of view. It is rich sources of food, energy and minerals and considered a primary source of livelihood for a large part of the world's population. It has also sustained functions for the marine life and the biodiversity, which has important to the local, regional and global environment as will.
The anthropogenic activities, such as urbanization, agriculture and industrial processing have resulted in increasing inputs of both chemical and biological pollution to the seawater. In the recent years, much public attention has been paid to the potential health risks of bathing in water polluted with sewage. So, sea water and beach quality is also important from an economical point of view on the local level as potential for tourism industry.
The coast zone is ecologically and economically important for the Palestinian. The beach is the only continues accessible recreational area for the population of Gaza. In the same time, sand dunes in the coastal zone hold the best ground water resources in Gaza. So, Gaza coastal zone has multi functions and provides the area with different resources potential which could be classified into economic potential, social potential and scientific potential.
I. Economic Potential
A. Tourism
Tourism in Gaza is expected to be a major source of future income or revenue. It depends on unspoiled areas and relatively clean water. Its potential is considered medium, but limited by political constraints.
B. Agriculture
The coastal area in Gaza is a traditional zone for agricultural production, for the large and rapidly growing population of Gaza. It is zone is an important base for food supply & export. The zone has a certain potential for growth in the future.
C. Fishery
Fishermen in Gaza Strip are working under undeveloped condition. In the future plane, fishery sector has a great value for food supply of the local people and for the exports to Israel or the West Bank. So it has to be developed in a proper way (special beaches areas, sheds / cottage, or daily transportation) to fulfill the national needs.
II. Social Welfare Potential
Recreation
The Gaza Strip beaches are the only major source of recreation for more than 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza's people. The area is in bad needs of public access, service, landscape improvement and new infrastructure. Its potential use connected with improvement of public transportation, public service and safety of beach and water quality.
III. Scientific Potential
Archaeology
This sector considered as a source of regional and international knowledge of history. Generally, the Archaeology sector in Gaza has to be improved in form of protection of site, landscape, zoning of heritage beaches and support the tourism facilities.
Biological importance
The zone is an important ecological resource for Gaza, with variety of both plant and animal life (marine and terrestrial). It also holds the last natural areas in Gaza, such as the wetlands or marshes the wadi Gaza outlet, mobile sand dunes or sand cliffs.
1.3 Project Relevance:
The development of a monitoring program to assess the extent of different pollutants effects on marine life and seawater quality is very helpful in providing the local authorities with information on the risks and provides data that would assist in developing plans and implementing actions to reduce the size of pollution to an acceptable level. This would also protect the public from the danger of being infected by different microbes that are endemic in Gaza. In other words, this monitoring program clearly magnifies the conflicts between development interests and nature and would focus on the impact of offshore structures on onshore users. The project activities can be developed and extend to includes other partners from OIC countries. This will give a practical joint regional intervention.
Project
2.1 Project Summary
Coastal Zone Management is one more important issue for the development of the Gaza region. The beaches of the Gaza Strip are currently used as a disposal site for solid waste and wastewater. Around 20 million m3 of raw or partially treated wastewater are annually discharged to the Mediterranean Sea. The potential risks for these contaminants on marine ecosystems (apart from toxins produced by marine algae, marine animals and pathogenic microorganisms) are indeed international significance. In recent months (since October 2007) however, the problem has deteriorated sharply. The reduced electricity, fuel, necessary spare parts and other supplies into Gaza as a result of blockade have crippled Palestinian sewage treatment facilities which has resulted in increased pollution of the immediate seawater and coastal zone used for bathing and harvesting shellfish.
The sewage discharge is not only contaminating Gaza sea waters but also posing health risks for bathers and consumers of seafood. Most hospitals in the Gaza strip have no wastewater treatment facilities and depend mainly on municipal wastewater treatment plants. This situation can lead to the spread of pathogens that are multi-drug resistant. Water quality tests conducted in late April by the World Health Organization at 13 points along Gaza's coast found that four sites — three in Gaza City and one in Rafah, in the south – are contaminated with dangerous levels of bacteria associated with faeces. This would indicate that pathogenic organisms within the general population may be being released to the coastal waters, thereby posing health risks to those who bathe in or consume shellfish from contaminated waters
Much public attention has been paid in the recent year to the health risks of using poor quality drinking water quality and bathing in water polluted with sewage. The monitoring and assessment of drinking water, seawater and beach quality in Palestine are considered as a vital part of water resource management. The Ministry of Health (MOH) warned of the negative effects of increased pollution of seawater by raw sewage and recommended that beaches near the contaminated water be closed for the season and have urged fishermen not to fish close to the coastline. This pollution problem is not just a Gaza concern, but also a matter of regional concern, because the sea currents generally flow to the north. Thus contamination of the Gaza coastal zone will potentially affect northern regions of the Mediterranean. This project aims mainly at providing the concerned authorities with accurate data regarding the microbiological and chemical quality of seawater at several locations along the Gaza Beach. In addition, the project will also involve training of laboratory and field staff and a comprehensive public awareness program that include TV and radio messages, brochures and information boards that are regularly updated to give information in as close to real time as possible.
The project will focus on improving public health in the Gaza Strip through improving Drinking and Seawater Monitoring capabilities and capacities. Primarily a monitoring and control program will be designed, using WHO parameters as the key indicators and identifying sampling locations and timeframes for recreational waters. The project will also perform beach cleaning campaigns along all the beaches of the Gaza Strip in order to reduce the level of the pollution by solid wastes, which will, in addition, increase the level of public awareness. This project will also determine the pathogens isolated from seawater and any antimicrobial resistance of isolates, particularly those that may be potentially pathogenic. In addition it is proposed that analyses for viruses or viral indicators such as FRNA bacteriophages be undertaken to better indicate the likely presence of pathogenic viruses. Thus this component of the project will be a mixture of program implementation and research and development in the context of the coastline.
2.2 Objectives and Scope
2.2.1 Objectives:
The main objectives of this study are summarized in the following:
· To develop monitoring programs for drinking and recreational waters and shellfish waters and flesh
· To develop appropriate methodologies and analytical procedures to ensure accurate and replicate determinations specific to the Gaza situation
· To outline the safety measures to the local authorities to ensure the safety and attractiveness of the Gaza Strip beach as a resort area.
· To provide the local authorities with data about the long-term impact of sewage on the sea water quality and fisheries.
· To develop the human skills of relevant local authorities in conducting studies to achieve the goals of the project.
· To provide opportunity for joint regional cooperation and partnership (The project aim to mobilized partners from Prize Winners to share the activities)
In addition, the project will achieve other supplementary goals:
· Examining the resistance of seawater bacterial contaminants to antibiotics also for the purpose of supplying the health sector with original data about this escalating global problem
· Developing skills of both under- and postgraduate students as well as laboratory staff of various Gazan institutions through training and participation in conducting the research studies
· Job creation for the field staff and newly graduated students
2.2.2 Objectives Analysis:
The reliable management of the available resources together with institutional and manpower development are the main objectives of many projects. Reliable data on existing situations must be available for a proper design and minimizing associated costs. So, the purpose of this project is to provide adequate data and information and to facilitate transfer of knowledge and experiences.
The objectives analysis of this project is summarized in the following points:
Improve the Public Health Protection
Overall objective:
Seawater Monitoring and Shellfish quality monitoring capacities are improved
Project objective:
Results:
Technical guidelines are available for Relevant Authorities
Þ planning data
Þ WHO Standards
Þ Monitoring and control procedures
Human capacities are established
Þ managers of relevant ministries and authorities are trained
Þ technical staff are trained
Training and Monitoring modules are available
Þ training manuals transferable to others are developed
2.2.3 Project Scope:
The proposal will be conducted through a group of experts from Palestine, the WHO Collaborating Centre for the Protection of Water Quality and Human Health at the Robens Centre for Public and Environmental Health at the University of Surrey- UK. Different levels of the community (scientists and experts from universities and professional institutions, engineers and technicians from municipalities and others) will participate in the performance of the activities of the project.
The project will be carried out to gain a better understanding of the present situation in the Gaza Strip and the planning of future intervention in a more logical and effective way. The project aims to mobilize other partners from Prize Winners to share the activities. The Main Activities includes: