Wastewater - Turning Problem to Solution

Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................................................................................. iii Glossary ................................................................................................................................................................................................................ iv Acronyms and abbreviations................................................................................................................................................................................ vi List of figures ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... viii List of tables ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... ix List of boxes ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... x List of case studies .............................................................................................................................................................................................. xi Foreword .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. xii Executive summary ............................................................................................................................................................................................ xiv Part 1: Background and purpose 1 A decade on from Sick Water?............................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Why addressing wastewater is still urgent .......................................................................................................................................................... 8 Why focus on wastewater resource recovery and reuse?.................................................................................................................................. 13 Part 2: The potential for wastewater resource recovery and reuse 19 Wastewater in numbers ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 Wastewater in the circular economy................................................................................................................................................................... 23 What are the resources that can be recovered from wastewater?.................................................................................................................... 26 Safe reusable water....................................................................................................................................................................................... 29 Nutrient recovery ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 35 Energy recovery ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 41 Other potential products from wastewater and their applications................................................................................................................... 44 Persistent barriers and concerns to wastewater reuse and recovery............................................................................................................... 46 Inadequate political support or lack of priority setting in the political arena ............................................................................................. 48 Governance, institutional and regulatory barriers ....................................................................................................................................... 49 Insufficient data and information ................................................................................................................................................................. 49 Inadequate financing ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 51 Low social and cultural acceptance, including religious reasons .............................................................................................................. 51 Limited human and institutional capacity.................................................................................................................................................... 54 Environmental and human health concerns................................................................................................................................................. 55 Contaminants of concern ............................................................................................................................................................................. 59 Part 3: The solution – Optimizing wastewater resource recovery and preventing pollution 61 Action areas.......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 63 Action area 1: Reduce the volume of wastewater produced ...................................................................................................................... 63 Action area 2: Prevent and reduce contamination in wastewater flows ................................................................................................... 66 Action area 3: Sustainably managing wastewater for resource recovery and reuse ................................................................................ 69 The building blocks for systems change ........................................................................................................................................................... 81 Effective and coherent legislation and governance .................................................................................................................................... 82 Mobilize adequate and sustained investment ............................................................................................................................................. 86 Enhancing human, technical and institutional capacity at all levels (local to global) .............................................................................. 90 Technical and social innovation ................................................................................................................................................................... 91 Stronger data and information ..................................................................................................................................................................... 92 Increase communications, awareness and accountability......................................................................................................................... 93 Part 4: Conclusions 97

References ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 99

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