Social Investigation of Greywater Reuse in Baghdad

Abstract

Both the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq War have affected and used the water resources. Most of the water in Baghdad comes from Tigris river. Baghdadis need abundant water supplies to live and survive in the desert environment. The wars and economic sanctions have left the people in a state of drought, with the water largely contaminated and few resources available to clean it. Baghdad has arid  climate with extremes of heat and cold, temperatures also vary greatly with time,  the  mean  January  temperature  is  7°C  and  the  mean  July  temperature  is  35°C.High temperatures in the capital city of Baghdad, which lies in the central part of the country, is 51° C have been recorded. Analyses were conducted from 2005 to 2010 and the results for percent of electricity consumption by end use shows that 10 percent  is for evaporative cooling. In  addition  to  water  policies  of  Turkey  ,Syria  and  Iran  which  affects  strongly  the  water availability  in Iraq, the lack of water for irrigation is the major reason of failure of agricultural policy in Iraq . Water shortage in Baghdad                                                 occurs. More than one out of three Baghdadi's people lack access to safe drinking water, and more than one out of six lack adequate sanitation. Wide attention are required for starting national water conservation programs .In arid areas of Baghdad, water conservation and reuse are issues that receive a great deal of public attention in the last decade. The search for ways to responsibly use and reuse water is vital to the sustainability of the water supply and thus the future of these regions Treated  gray water  in houses can be reused for toilet flushing, outdoor irrigation and spraying water  evaporation  cooling  of  selected  apartments  building  located  in  Baghdad.  Treated wastewater also can be used for irrigation and streets cleaning by municipal institutes. Several experiments  in  Baghdad  have  been  achieved  for  small  scale  to  reuse  graywater  for  toilet flushing,  irrigation,  outside  house cleaning  and evaporative  cooling. The basic goal of this project proposal is to apply the graywater for wide range as solution of water crises in Baghdad. Baghdad's Water demand is estimated to 3.2 Millions m3/day, the quantity of produced water is (66%) of the required needs.

-The Average daily use is about 18% lower than the annual daily average in Winter, while it is 38% higher than the annual daily average ,that cause wide variation in water demand during the year.

- For selected communities the maximum daily use is about 205% of the average daily use.

- Although electrical energy have decreased significantly during the past decade, Increased use of evaporative cooling make residential water use was continued to rise approximately 5% per year.

Keywords: wa ter resource mana gement ,greywa ter r euse, Baghda d