Decentralized grey water treatment as alternative option for water scarcity mitigation: Comparative studies and exchange of experiences between South Africa and Oman (DesWater)

This research project will explore the conditions under which decentralized grey water treatment provides overall socio-economic, environmental and potential health benefits to urban households in South Africa and Oman. The in house re-use of grey water reduces the pressure on the overall demand of freshwater and the cost of centralised treated wastewater, especially in a context in which both countries (south Africa and Oman) are experiencing high population density growth, and improvement in economic activities. Promoting decentralized grey water treatment at household level may be a good option for both countries, and therefore represents a good opportunity to share experiences and best practices that can be transferred between the countries. Water is extremely scarce both in Oman and in South Africa and planning for the next decade by ensuring that there will be enough fresh water for all citizens requires among other actions the on-site recycling of grey water. The investment in grey water systems at home level requires on the other hand heavy investments at the beginning. Hence, the need to introduce some economic incentives to households to adopt such grey water treatment systems. We will collect data from 4 different locations, 2 in each country South Africa (Cape Town, and Mpumalanga), and Oman (Al-Khod, Hail). Semi-structured questionnaires will be used to collect data and organize the survey in a balanced time frame. The selected data will cover information pertaining to household and technology characteristics. We construct economic models to test key hypotheses that include the socio-economic and technological characteristics in both countries. Three major economic models will be built; econometric specification, optimization techniques and experimental studies. The project will allow to rank the available grey water technologies based on cost effectiveness and quality criteria; estimate the willingness to pay for acceptable grey water quality standard in the selected areas in South Africa and Oman; evaluate the impacts of market and command-and-control water policy mechanisms on adoption of grey water treatment technologies in both countries and last not least estimate the potential fresh water saving and health improvements due to the adoption of grey water technology and contribution to water stress mitigation in both countries.