Wastewater - Turning Problem to Solution

Persistent barriers and concerns to wastewater reuse and recovery

Despite successful wastewater resource recovery and reuse applications in many countries, persistent barriers and concerns linger, continuing to limit the widespread implementation of wastewater resource recovery and reuse at scale, and limiting progress in achieving circularity in water systems (Morris et al. 2021). The implementation of water reclamation, and the recovery and reuse of other products, suffers not only from the obvious technical barriers, but by challenges such as a limited institutional capacity, a lack of regulations and financial incentives, changing negative public perceptions towards and social acceptance of water recycling, reclamation and reuse, as well as the dire need for support by regulators and politicians.

challenges associated with wastewater reuse (Morris et al. 2021). Several reviews to identify and categorize these barriers have been undertaken (Kehrein et al. 2020; Morris et al. 2021; Breitenmoser et al. 2022; EIB 2022). Different approaches and perspectives in these studies have resulted in different outcomes, in terms of the priority barriers. There seems to be agreement that while technological feasibility is a prerequisite for developing wastewater resource recovery and reuse, it is not considered to be the barrier, but rather it is the social, policy, economic and regulatory barriers that hamper successful development (Morris et al. 2021). Kehrein et al. (2020) identified economics and value chain barriers as the priority to be addressed, whereas Morris et al. (2021) and Breitenmoser et al. (2022) identify social, governance and regulatory barriers as of particular importance.

Many of these barriers and concerns are integrated and assert complex connections on both the benefits and

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