Water Research Centre
First point of contact for Water Researchers in Oman
Director’s Message
Water Research Center (WRC)
would like to congratulate and
wish success to Prof. Kacimov for
his new assignment as Dean of
CAMS and thank him for his service as former director of the
center. WRC will continue to
build on the previous experiences
by disseminating the knowledge
in water research issues, tackling
the challenges and closely working with other centers and colleges to establish and develop success towards becoming a leading center in water
research with international recognition. Such goal can be
better achieved through fundamental and applied thematic
research in water which is of vital importance to arid and
semi-arid areas like Oman where resources are limited and
demand is growing. The main focus will be to conduct cross
-disciplinary and synergic research in the areas:
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Groundwater
Desalination
Surface water
Socioeconomics of water in arid climates
Agricultural water management
Hydroecology
The Center will strive to strengthen collaborative links with
several national and international institutions, agencies
and companies and with colleges and centers within SQU
to address the challenges in water disciplines such as
groundwater resources management, depletion and contamination, flood hazard mitigation, optimum irrigation
and crop production, global climatic changes in relation to
water resources and others. WRC hosts a Desalination and
Nanotechnology Chair who coordinates and provides thesis
projects and financial sponsorship for students in PhD and
MSc programs in the corresponding specializations.
Equally important will be to provide networking, training
and capacity development, facilitation of consultancy services and extension and data collection and archiving on
traditional and innovative water technologies and experience.
Osman Abdalla, Ph.D., P.G.
May 2012
Reusing Treated Wastewater in
Muscat: Social Survey
Currently, about 70,000 m3/day
of treated wastewater is produced in Muscat by Haya Water
(The company that handles and
treats wastewater in Muscat,
Oman). Muscat Municipality is
partially utilizing the treated
effluents (TE) in landscape irrigation. However, disposing of
the remaining TE in an environmental friendly way is a major concern for Haya Water and relevant authorities. Furthermore, reusing excess TE produced from the current
treatment plants and the future ones in sustainable, economical and environmental friendly ways is very important
since TE is considered as an important water resource in
this region due to scarcity of natural water resources.
Therefore, there is a need to implement a comparative
study on potential reuse options for the treated
wastewater produced by Haya Water. These options include: urbane reuse, agriculture reuse, industrial reuse,
groundwater recharge, and energy generation. The guiding
goal for this project is to promote the conservation of the
country’s water resources by recycling treated municipal
wastewater for different potential uses. This should lower
demand on finite water resources; support business and
growth; and introduce reliable and potentially lower cost of
water sources for industry in the long-term. As a start for
this project, a social survey was conducted to collect the
opinions of people living in Muscat. About 115 houses chosen randomly to cover different regions in Muscat were
included in this study. It was noted that about 33% of respondents have no knowledge about wastewater or
wastewater treatment. However, the results showed that
the public have a general understanding about the different water and wastewater terminologies. Also, the results
indicated a gap of knowledge that might affect the public’s
perspective towards wastewater nature, treatment and
reuse. Nevertheless, the respondents were very positive to
support any potential reuse option that helps in either one
or all of the following aspects: prevent pollution, protect
human health, be a long term solution, energy efficient,
financially sound, protect wild life or has low green house
emissions. The majority of the respondents were positive
about the reuse of the treated effluent in irrigation purposes and urban practices followed by groundwater recharge
and industrial reuse. The least preferred reuse options
were irrigation agricultural crops, discharge to marine environment and reuse as drinking water.
Dr. Mahad Said Baawain
Water Research Centre
First point of contact for Water Researchers in Oman
US team visited SQU to discuss the
Middle East and North Africa Network
of Water Centers of Excellence (MENA
NWC) research program
The Water Research Center hosted the joint visit of the
United State-USAID-FABRI team to Sultan Qaboos University on May 8th to discuss the Middle East and North
Africa Network of Water Centers of Excellence (MENA
NWC) research program. The meeting was conducted
with 4 groups from SQU professionals working in different water-related research themes: Wastewater reuse
optimization, Groundwater and Aquifer Recharge, Greywater treatment and reuse and Desalination. The visitors discussed with SQU members and collaborative
partners from the Ministries and industry approaches to
the research program and also discussed SQU's Concept
Notes and Seed Fund requests that were submitted
seeking USAID funding.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is
leading the effort of establishing MENA NWC to address
water challenges in the region. USAID together with Further Advancing the Blue Revolution Initiative (FABRI)
organized meetings for water professionals in the region; the last meeting took place in Muscat 5-8 December 2012 and the University participated by a group of
water professionals. Following Muscat’s meeting last
year, SQU participants put together Seed Fund requests
and research Concept Notes seeking USAID funding. The
US team is led by Jill Shaunfield of the U.S. Department
of State and accompanied by Scott Christiansen of
USAID, and Kenneth Ludwa of Further Advancing the
Blue Revolution Initiative (FABRI).
FYI!
FYI!
Oman Water Society organizes a workshop in
Salahlah (24-25 September
2012) on fog collection and
would like to invite participants from SQU to present
their work on this topic. If
you are interested please
contact the Water Research Center
Seminar on 22nd May 2012
entitled “Estimation of
groundwater recharge in
North Oman- Hydrochemical and Isotopic approach”
May 2012
Wastewater reuse optimization Group
Greywater treatment and reuse Group
Groundwater and Aquifer Recharge Group
Desalination Group
by Rashid Al Abri (PhD
student, Department of
Earthsciences, SQU).
Venue: WRC Meeting
Room
WRC would like to thank Prof A. Kacimov for his service as a Director of WRC and congratulate him for his
new assignment as Dean of College of Agricultural & Marine Sciences. WRC wishes Prof. Kacimov all success
as Dean of CAMS
Any suggestion or recommendation email us at wrc@squ.edu.om or call us 24143151 & look for Ms. Jacquie