Social Acceptance of Greywater Reuse in Rural Areas

Abstract

Like many countries, Palestine suffers from water scarcity. Here, treated greywater is considered an essential nonconventional water resource. We aim to identify some wastewater reuse and disposal practices in rural areas and assess the acceptance level of different reuses of greywater. We conducted a survey analysis in four villages with a strong agricultural activity of the western Bethlehem Governorate. The level of acceptance of greywater reuse was generally independent of demographic variables like family size, income, or water bill, with a few exceptions regarding gender, age, and level of education. Centralized treatment was more valued than treatment at home, which presented similar acceptance levels than no treatment and might indicate a lack of trust in this alternative. The only reuse alternative trusted across treatments was bush irrigation (3.53-3.86 on a five-point Likert scale), but other options without clear, direct human contact like crop irrigation (3.14-3.62), stone cutting (3.19-3.36), and construction (3.12-3.42) also received considerable support. Reused perceived as having direct contact with humans was rejected, as it was the flushing of public toilets (2.59-2.7), aquaculture (1.98-2.37), olive pressing (1.85-1.94), and drinking (1.62-1.72). Relatively new reuse, car washing (2.95-3.17), was somewhere in between, partially because of its novelty. To increase this and other reuses, we strongly encourage local authorities to inform the population about the potentialities of greywater reuse.