Background Rural area wastewater treatment (WWT) plants usually use low-investment technology, and suffer from problems of low process efficiency and poor effluent quality. Such plants can be damaging to the environment, in particular because of the pollution of existing surface and groundwater sources, and the loss of significant quantities of potentially re-usable water. The Sakhnin Regional Demonstration Centre (SRDC) was the first one of its kind in the Arab community of Israel and has several ongoing activities, including environmental planning, education and WWT. The SRDC’s activities are based around the management of the local WWT plant, which treats effluent from around 70% of local households. Although basic infrastructure exists, there is a dire need to upgrade existing wastewater treatment facilities to produce improved quality effluent for local agricultural irrigation. Objectives The overall objective was to develop an improved treatment works that would allow the added water quality benefits to be studied and communicated to local communities and further afield. Specifically, the main planned actions were the design of advanced technologies for upgrading the WWT plant in Sakhnin; educational activities involving independent work projects on chemical, environmental and agronomic subjects related to the operation of the WWT plant and effluent reuse; annual workshops on WWT technologies in rural areas; and the development of an international exchange on upgrading technologies for rural area WWT plants. Results The innovative aspect of the project was the combination of educational elements and wastewater treatment technologies. In both areas, the project achieved its objectives. The project set up an education and research centre for investigating wastewater treatment technologies in rural areas with the aim of producing improved quality effluent for irrigation. The technologies tested - all four methods, to various extents - managed to produce, on a small scale, the expected improved quality. The most successful methods proved to be the application of the intermittently-fed bio-filter and the seasonal reservoir with a fixed medium. The project also produced four scientific articles and presented the work in an international conference. After setting up the experimental R&D facilities, research on wastewater treatment by high-school students from all over the country were carried out, totalling 27 ‘final works’ (originally foreseen: 20) and work on 310 ‘Ecotops’(originally foreseen: 160). The ‘final works’ were mini-research projects carried out by high school students who are majoring in environmental sciences . The ‘Ecotops’ were simpler mini-research projects carried out by high school students on environmental topics. Local capacity was also developed through two qualification courses for the beneficiary's instructors and for secondary school teachers from the area (about 60 participants overall) on the subject of wastewater treatment. Knowledge was disseminated also through three annual workshops, where students, alongside experts, academics, entrepreneurs and policy-makers, participated and presented their work. Numerous visitors from Israel and from abroad visited the project's facilities , including the Minister of the Environment, diplomatic delegations, Palestinian Authority officials and academics, and other guests from all over the world. Neighbouring settlements requested the beneficiary to assist them in designing wastewater re-use systems. However, how the project's results will be used to improve agricultural practices is not well known. In addition, the upgrading of the local wastewater facilities was done only on a small scale.