A Model for Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Wastewater Treatment Facilities Regarding Endocrine Disrupting Compound Removal: A Case Study in the Palestinian West Bank

As water scarcity continues to grow, wastewater reuse emerges as a critical potential water resource for nations in semi-arid areas across the world. This research uses the Middle East as a case study to assess possible options for reusing treated wastewater. Based on a recent water quality study on wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the Palestinian West Bank, this research conducts a Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) to evaluate the relative advantages of different levels of wastewater treatment. The study compares secondary treatment facilities in the West Bank to select tertiary facilities in Israel in terms of cost per cubic meter of treatment, with a focus on the removal of Endocrine Disrupting Compounds (EDCs), and additional water quality parameters, including total suspended solids (TSS), biological oxygen demand (BOD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorous (TP). After calculating the Cost Effectiveness (CE) ratio, results show that for EDCs, the optimal wastewater solution in the Palestinian Authority is secondary treatment, with the advancement to tertiary infrastructure providing extremely modest water quality benefits at considerable expense. This CEA is valuable for informing decisions on optimal strategies for building new wastewater treatment facilities locally, as well as in other semi-arid regions around the world.