The North Gaza Emergency Sewage Treatment Project (NGEST) is the fourth intervention to the Bank giving high priority to improve water and sanitation services in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank.
Back in 1976, Beit Lahia wastewater treatment plant (BLWWTP) was constructed as an initial attempt to improve the sanitation conditions of the northern Gaza. The initial capacity of the plant was limited to 5,000 m3/day. However, demand was increasing and the daily sewage inflow is currently around 13,000 m3.
The combination of increasing volume of sewage inflows and insufficient capacity to properly handle it has led to poorly treated effluent overflowing from the treatment plant into the surrounding sand dunes, creating a lake of nearly 1.5 million CM of foul water, which now covers over 35 hectares (350 donums).
The water level in this poorly treated effluent lake continues to rise and is threatening to hydraulically overflow the whole sewage collection system and flood the neighboring communities.
In 1992 3 people died as they were flooded after the breakdown of the emergency pond sand embankments.
Upon request from the Palestinian Water Authority, the Bank responded positively to participate in solving the problems associated with BLWWTP. Further in June 2004 negotiated and signed with the Palestinian Authority the terms of NGEST aiming at: i) Mitigating the immediate and gathering health and environmental safety threats to the communities surrounding the effluent lake at BLWTP and ii) Providing a satisfactory long-term solution to the treatment of wastewater for the Northern Governorate in Gaza.
Due to the lack of funding at the initial stage, the implementation of the project was split into two parts. Part A has started since November 2004 and. It is designed to drain the lake and thus alleviate the environmental and health threats associated with the existing wastewater treatment plant. The effluent would be transferred to another site, where new infiltration basins will be built.
This will ensure that the immediate threat of flooding posed to the communities that are neighboring the BLWTP and backflows of raw sewage in the sewerage system are eliminated. Part A is fully funded under Grant Agreement with the World Bank and the European Investment Bank, EIB. Part B will provide the medium/longer-term solution to the wastewater treatment issue in northern Gaza area by commissioning a new wastewater treatment facility with improved effluent quality standards. The Bank support, commitment and good partnership