Wastewater - Turning Problem to Solution

Population growth is a major driver in increasing wastewater volumes – with the world’s population estimated to increase by another 2 billion to almost 10 billion by 2050. This growth is projected to occur mostly in urban agglomerations in developing countries – populations that are already underserved by adequate water supply and wastewater treatment systems. The volume of wastewater from domestic and municipal sources is estimated to rise to 470–497 billion m 3 /year by 2030, representing a 24–38 per cent increase in the volume of wastewater produced by the time the SDGs expire. Realizing human rights and global political ambitions with regards to water requires fundamental and systemic changes to see wastewater as a resource. Improper handling of wastewater disproportionately affects vulnerable groups, especially children and women. Due to gendered labour division, women are often most affected by the lack of wastewater treatment and consequent poor water quality. They are the most likely to be in contact with faeces and food as primary carers, increasing health risks to themselves and their families.

Safe and appropriate wastewater management for resource recovery and reuse goes beyond achieving water security, with potential co-benefits including improved environmental health, human health and well being, protecting biodiversity, reducing dependence on synthetic fertilizers, and diversifying energy production and economic opportunity. Additionally, an inclusive approach to water and wastewater management results in societal benefits, especially among women, ensuring they can easily access safe water and have more time to earn income. Despite several successful wastewater reuse applications in many countries, persistent barriers and concerns linger, continuing to limit the widespread implementation of water reuse at scale. These barriers and concerns include: • Inadequate political support or lack of priority setting in the political arena – wastewater resource recovery and reuse is not sufficiently prioritized in the political discourse. • Governance, institutional and regulatory barriers – where there are policies for resource recovery and reuse from wastewater streams, there are often inconsistent or competing policy objectives and low levels of implementation, with weak compliance and enforcement. • Insufficient data and information – current deficits in data availability and accessibility relating to wastewater resource recovery and reuse, and lack of gender disaggregated data make it difficult to assess impacts, target actions and track progress in implementation. • Inadequate financing – there is a practical need to close the water loop, but sustainable investment will only occur if it is economically viable to treat and reuse wastewater. Innovative approaches to financing such as blended finance approaches, cost recovery and other incentives need to be implemented to fund improved collection and treatment, immediately and at scale. • Low social and cultural acceptance, including for religious reasons – familiarity, awareness and trust are required to tackle the negative perceptions of wastewater and bring about the required behaviour changes, recognizing there are different implications for different stakeholder groups. • Limited human and institutional capacity – in many cases, lack of capacity is hindering wastewater management, resource recovery and reuse, including for monitoring and data management.

Wastewater production, collection, treatment and reuse Billions of cubic metres Unlocking the potential of wastewater

2030 projection and potential to reach SDG 6.3

470

2015

360

357

225

188

Potential for substantial increase in recycling and safe reuse globally

40

The untapped potential for wastewater reuse is around 320 billion cubic metres per year, with the potential to supply more than 10 times the current global desalination capacity

Proportion to be treated to achieve the SDG target for halving the amount of untreated wastewater

Collected and treated Collected, treated, and reused

Production

Collected but not treated

Source: Qadir et al . 2020; Jones et al . 2021

Figure 0.1: The potential of wastewater as a resource.

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