Title: Sewage of Tripoli: a review of the current situation and of the future planning

Authors: Ghinwa Melodie Naja; Bohumil Volesky

Addresses: Everglades Foundation, Science Department, 18001 Old Cutler Road, Suite 625, Palmetto Bay, FL 33157, USA ' Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, 3610 University Street, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2B2, Canada

Abstract: Tripoli represents a major urban area in Lebanon with about 350,000 people in the city, which may swell by additional 100,000 when the city surrounding population is counted. It used to be a dominant agricultural region, but the last three decades witnessed a rapid development of urban construction. The goal of this paper was to present the current situation regarding the sewage disposal, contaminating the adjacent coastal areas. Furthermore, the future planning for the Tripoli area was also examined with specific technical recommendations put forward. It is expected that the wastewater treatment plant, as proposed for the city of Tripoli, will solve the problems related to the treatment and discharge of wastewater. However, the wastewater treatment scheme is not without controversies, such as sludge handling and disposal; odour control; the re-use and/or sea dispersal of the treated effluent, and the high costs of the proposed type of treatment.

Keywords: municipal sewage; sewage treatment; secondary wastewater treatment; raw sewage; sewage odour; sludge disposal; wastewater treatment plants; environmental technology; wastewater management; coastal sea pollution; water pollution; Lebanon.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETM.2013.054879

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2013 Vol.16 No.4, pp.312 - 325

Received: 21 Jul 2011
Accepted: 22 Aug 2012

Published online: 17 Sep 2014 *

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