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Municipal Wastewater

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Unconventional Water Resources

Abstract

Municipal wastewater is a major source of water for multiple uses, particularly in water-scarce regions. It is now recognized as a valuable resource rather than a waste stream with a focus toward resource recovery. Tailored technologies, adaptive policies, and regulations, as well as innovative finance mechanisms that create an enabling environment, need to be in place. In doing so, wastewater use should be an essential component in new policies for a circular economy, which aims to decouple economic activity from finite resource consumption. If safely managed, wastewater use can also be an important strategy to alleviate pollution in ecosystems, while producing green business opportunities. There is an increasing diversity of available technologies for resource recovery from wastewater in the presence of major challenges due to a lack of systematic planning and design to identify and implement sustainable solutions in the context of a circular economy and a Nexus thinking approach. Acceptance of reused wastewater by people and policymakers still remains a challenge. This acceptance is linked to many aspects including the general absence of adequate national legislation and the insufficiency of information sharing about the advantages, the progress in technological performance, and the safety regarding the environment and human health. There are still barriers spanning several complex and multiple dimensions that impede, delay, or completely block the expanded use of municipal wastewater. The good news is that options are available and if responsible decision-makers are aware, these barriers can be actively overcome.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine and Freshwater Branch, Ecosystem Division, UN Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya

    Birguy Lamizana

  2. National Research Institute for Rural Engineering, Water, and Forestry (INRGREF), Laboratory of Agricultural Sciences and Techniques (LR16INRAT05), National Institute of Agronomic Research of Tunisia (INRAT), University of Carthage, Ariana, Tunisia

    Olfa Mahjoub

  3. United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES), Ammonstrasse 74, Dresden, 01067, Germany

    Serena Caucci & Edeltraud Guenther

  4. GRID-Arendal, P.O. Box 183, 4802, Arendal, Norway

    Clever Mafuta

  5. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (EPH), Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), University of Basel, Socinstrasse 57, 4051, Basel, Switzerland

    Gueladio Cisse

  6. Stockholm Environment Institute, Linnégatan 87D, 104 51, Stockholm, Sweden

    Kim Andersson

  7. Institute of Local Development (ILD-WATER). Water Economics Group, University of Valencia, Avda. Tarongers s/n, Valencia, 46022, Spain

    Francesc Hernández-Sancho

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  1. Birguy Lamizana
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Correspondence to Birguy Lamizana .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Manzoor Qadir

  2. United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Vladimir Smakhtin

  3. Land and Water Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy

    Sasha Koo-Oshima

  4. United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES), Dresden, Sachsen, Germany

    Edeltraud Guenther

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Lamizana, B. et al. (2022). Municipal Wastewater . In: Qadir, M., Smakhtin, V., Koo-Oshima, S., Guenther, E. (eds) Unconventional Water Resources . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90146-2_7

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