Haifa Region Association of Towns - Sewerage – Wastewater Treatment Plant
The Association is responsible for treating wastewater from Metropolitan Haifa and nearby cities and towns, serving a total population of about 250,000 and covering a total land area of about 100 km². Raw sewage entering the treatment plant contains organic material, both dissolved and in suspension, originating from households and industries. This wastewater is treated at our treatment plant located in the Haifa Bay at the end of Ha’ashlag Street. Its principal function is the breakdown of organic compounds in wastewater. The plant takes in and treats several hundred thousand cubic meters of sewage each day using advanced biological treatment processes. The treated wastewater – the effluents – are sent to the Jezreel Valley where it is used to irrigate field crops.
The Association achieves three important goals through operation of the treatment plant:
- Safeguarding of public health.
- Advanced treatment of wastewater to prevent ecological impacts.
- Reuse of water that brings about an annual savings of about 38 million m³ of water each year in Israel’s water economy.
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Construction of the wastewater treatment plant
The Haifa Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility originally constructed in 1961 was the first established in Israel.
The Haifa Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant, which was originally constructed in 1961, was the first of its kind established in Israel.
The wastewater was treated biologically and was based on a trickling filter and sludge treatment method. The plant was planned at first to serve a population of up to 225,000 and was therefore designed to handle about 30,000 m³ wastewater per day. The plant’s biological filtration beds, sludge digester tanks and sludge drying beds can be seen in this picture.
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Expension of the Wastewater Treatment Facility
In the mid-1970s, the facility was expanded to serve a population of up to 550,000.
The facility was thus designed to receive wastewater at an average flow rate of 80,000 m³ per day. A more advanced activated sludge biological treatment system was also added.
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Additional expansion and upgrade operations
As its service population grew and demands were made for more advanced treatment of wastewater, further activities were undertaken in 1994 to expand and upgrade the facility.
These upgrade activities included transition to the treatment of all the wastewater using the activated sludge method and an increase in the average design flow rate to 120,000 m³ per day.
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End of expansion operations
Most of the expansion works for the facility [based on the 1994 expansion plan] were concluded in 2002 at a total cost of about NIS 170 million.
The association is currently preparing for an additional upgrade of the facility in order to comply with new more stringent requirements for effluent quality demanded from treatment facilities in Israel.
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The plant in 2018
Regulations governing the quality of effluents and sludge have been tightened. As a result, the Association has begun an additional upgrade of the plant in order to produce effluents at a tertiary level of quality. The plant upgrade will include the construction of the following installations: coarse and fine pre-filtration units, sand removal units, an odor control installation, an effluent filtration installation, an effluent disinfection installation and an additional biological wastewater treatment module.
Following the upgrade, the effluents will conform to all quality requirements for unlimited irrigation.
- 1961
- 1975
- 1994
- 2002
- 2018
Local authorities served
