AMMAN
— Authorities are working on finding a "sustainable" solution for olive
mill wastewater (OMWW), generated in the process of extracting
oil from olives.
اضافة اعلان
Currently,
olive presses get rid of OMWW by using tankers to take it to three dumpsites
across Jordan for the lack of treatment facilities.
This
year, landfills were loaded beyond their capacity and presses run the risk of
having to stop operations, according to Mohammad Shamali, head of the Joint
Service Council of Irbid.
Taiseer
Najdawi, deputy president of the
Jordanian Association of Olive Producers and Owners of Presses, said that olive presses face this issue every year,
especially the northern region, which has 70 per cent of the presses in the
country.
Najdawi
said that the government increased the pond capacity at dumpsites, solving the
issue for this year, and called on concerned ministries to take advantage of
OMWW, known locally as zeebar, which is produced in large amounts in Jordan and
which could be a good investment.
Agriculture,
water and irrigation, and environment and municipal affaires ministries, and
research centers, will work together to find a solution to this issue, Secretary
General of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs Hussein Mheidat said on Sunday.
“All
these bodies will look into experience of other countries in dealing with OMWW
and decide the kind of treatment suitable for Jordan,” Mheidat told
Jordan
News.
In
other countries, OMWW is used for several purposes, including to produce
cosmetics and soaps or recycling it to be used as irrigation water, Mheidat
said.
Aref
Abu Younis, manager of an olive press, said that trucks take the liquid from
presses to landfills under a GPS tracking system to ensure that they do not
dispose of it at non-designated places, which would have serious environmental
effects.
OMWW
contains chemicals that affect the soil and has an undesirable odour, according
to Younis.
Jordan
is one of the top producers of olives and olive oil globally, producing around
170,000 tonnes of olives and 22,000
tonnes of oil.
According
to official numbers, the Kingdom has 22 million olive trees.
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