World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2020
Reuse of Treated Wastewater: From Technical Innovation to Legitimization
Publication: World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2020: Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater and Water Desalination and Reuse
ABSTRACT
A United Nations compilation of data on global municipal wastewater treatment statistics indicates that 60% of wastewater is being treated, 40% is being reused indirectly (whether unplanned or planned), but only 5% is being reused directly. This study reviews key policy research to describe a general regulatory framework under the auspices of the World Health Organization. Case studies are presented from North America (Mexico and the United States) and the Middle East (Israel, Jordan, and Palestine) that are used to identify current trends and perspectives. These records emphasize the need to include treated wastewater as part of the water budget of each country and to consider reuse water within an integrated water management program. However, lack of legitimization the use of treated wastewater has restricted reuse options. The legitimization of reuse could be achieved through innovative technical solutions to efficiently treat wastewater, strong political will to adopt strong and extensive regulation, good governance to monitor the quality of treated wastewater insuring the safe reuse, and effective public engagement in building systems and institutions. Additional research is required on the cultural and social impacts of legitimization of reuse of treated wastewater.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.
REFERENCES
Abdulla, F.; Alfarra, A.; Abu Qdais, H. and Sonneveld, B. (2016). Evaluation of wastewater treatment plants in Jordan and suitability for reuse. Academia Journal of Environmental Science; 4(7): 111-117.
Abderrahman, W.A. (2000). Water demand management and Islamic water management principles: A case study. International Journal of Water Resources Development; 16: 465-473.
Adewumi, J.R.; Ilemobade, A.A. and van Zyl, J.E. (2012). Minimizing risks in wastewater reuse: proposed operational principles and guidelines for South Africa. Journal of Water Reuse and Desalination; 2(4): 227-238.
Almas, A.A.M. and Scholz, M. (2006). Potential for wastewater reuse in irrigation: case study from Aden (Yemen). International Journal of Environmental Studies; 63: 131-142.
Al-Omari, A; Al-Houri, Z and Al-Weshah, R (2013). Impact of the As Samra wastewater treatment plant upgrade on the water quality (COD, electrical conductivity, TP, TN) of the Zarqa River. Water Science and Technology; 67(7): 1455-1464.
Angelakis, A.N.; Do Monte, M.H.F.M.; Bontoux, L.; and Asano, T. (1999). The status of wastewater reuse practice in the Mediterranean basin: Need for guidelines. Water Research; 33(10): 2201-2217.
Angelakis, A.N.; Asano, T.; Bahri, A.; Jimenez, B.E.; Tchobanoglous, G. (2018). Water reuse: From ancient to modern times and the future. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 6: 26.
Angelakis, A.N. and Snyder, S.A. (2015). Wastewater treatment and reuse: Past, present, and future. Water, 7(9): 4887-4895.
Asano, T.; Cotruvo, J.A. (2004). Groundwater recharge with reclaimed municipal wastewater: Health and regulatory considerations, Water Research, 38(8): 1941-1951.
Ayers, R.S. and Westcot, D.W. (1994). Water quality for agriculture. UNFAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 29, Rev. 1. <http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/T0234E/T0234E00.HTM> (Dec. 20, 2019).
Bahadir, M.; Aydin, M.; Aydin, S.; Beduk, F. and Batarshe, M. (2016). Wastewater reuse in the Middle East countries – A review of prospects and challenges. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin; 25(5): 1284-1304.
Binz, C., Sedlak, D., Harris-Lovett, S., Kiparsky, M., Truffer, B. (2016). The thorny road to technology legitimation – Institutional work for potable water reuse in California. Technological Forecasting & Social Change; 103: 249-263.
Blackwell, R. (2017). In Mexico, fears a new plant will kill wastewater farming. AP News. <https://apnews.com/ce2b3a01cc7841d7b8a9c434b5a38859> (May 29, 2018).
Carr, G.; Potter, R.B.; Nortcliff, S. (2011). Water reuse for irrigation in Jordan: Perceptions of water quality among farmers. Agricultural Water Management; 98(5): 847-854.
Cotruvo, J. (2016). Potable water reuse history and a new framework for decision making. Journal of Water Resources Development; 32(4): 503-513.
Cutolo, S.; Piveli, R.; Santos, J.; Montes, C.; Sundefeld, G.; Campos, F.; Gomes, T. and Melfi, A. (2012). Parasitological risk assessment from wastewater reuse for disposal in soil in developing countries. Water Science and Technology; 65(8): 1357-1367.
Dickin, S.K.; Schuster-Wallace, C.J.; Qadir, M.; Pizzacalla, K. (2016). A review of health risks and pathways for exposure to wastewater use in agriculture. Environ Health Perspectives; 124(7): 900–909.
Djuma, H.; Bruggeman, A; Eliades, M; and Lange, M.A (2016) Non-conventional water resources research in semi-arid countries of the Middle East, Desalination and Water Treatment; 57(5): 2290-2303.
Esteban, R.I. and de Miguel, E.O. (2008). Present and future of wastewater reuse in Spain. Desalination; 218: 105-119.
Fatta-Kassinos, D.; Kalavrouziotis, I.K.; Koukoulakis, P.N.; and Vasquez, M.I. (2011). The risks associated with wastewater reuse and xenobiotics in the agroecological environment. Science of the Total Environment; 409(19): 3555-3563.
Fawell, J.; Le Corre, K.; and Jeffrey, P. (2016). Common or independent? The debate over regulations and standards for water reuse in Europe. International Journal of Water Resources Development; 34(4): 559-572.
Garcia, X. and Pargament, D. (2015). Reusing wastewater to cope with water scarcity: Economic, social and environmental considerations for decision-making. Resources, Conservation and Recycling; 101: 154–166.
Grant, S.B.; Saphores, J.D.; Feldman, D.L.; Hamilton, A.J.; Fletcher, T.D.; Cook, P.L.M.; Stewardson, M.; Sanders, B.F.; Levin, L.A.; Ambrose, R.F.; Deletic, A.; Brown, R.; Jiang, S.C.; Rosso, D.; Cooper, W.J.; and Marusic, I. (2012). Taking the "waste" out of "wastewater" for human water security and ecosystem sustainability. Science; 337(6095): 681-686.
Gupta, V.K.; Ali, I.; Saleh, T.A.; Nayak, A.; and Agarwal, S. (2012). Chemical treatment technologies for waste-water recycling-an overview. RSC Advances; 2(16): 6380-6388.
Halperin, R. (Ed.), (1999). Irrigation with Effluents: Standards. Ministry of Health, Israel.
Hamilton, A.J.; Stagnitti, F.; Xiong, X.Z.; Kreidl, S.L.; Benke, K.K.; Maher, P. (2007). Wastewater irrigation: The state of play, Vadose Zone Journal; 6(4): 823-840.
Horne, J. (2016). Policy issues confronting Australian urban water reuse. International Journal of Water Resources Development; 32(4): 573-589.
Kalavrouziotis, I.K.; Kokkinos, P.; Oron, G.; Fatone, F.; Bolzonella, D.; Vatyliotou, M.; Fatta-Kassinos, D.; Koukoulakis, P.H.; and Varnavas, S.P. (2013). Current status in wastewater treatment, reuse and research in some Mediterranean countries, Desalination and Water Treatment; 53(8): 2015-2030.
Israeli Water Authority (IWA), (2012). Long-Term Master Plan for the National, Part A: Policy Document. Israeli Water Authority, Planning Division.
Jamwal, P.; Thomas, B.K.; Lele, S. and Srinivasan, V. (2014). Addressing water stress through wastewater reuse: Complexities and challenges in Bangalore, India. Proceedings of the Resilient Cities 2014 Congress. 5th Global Forum on Urban Resilience and Adaptation, Bonn, Germany.
Jeong, H; Kim, H. and Jang, T. (2016). Irrigation water quality standards for indirect wastewater reuse in agriculture: A contribution toward sustainable wastewater reuse in South Korea. Water 8: 169.
Jordan Standards Institute (JSI), (2006). Jordan Standard 893-2006. In: Water-Reclaimed Domestic Wastewater, 3rd edition. Jordan Standards Institute, Amman, Jordan (in Arabic).
Landers, J. (2019). Reuse ramps up. Civil Engineering, November 2019: 44-53.
Lavrnic, S and Mancini, M. (2016). Can constructed wetlands treat wastewater for reuse in agriculture? Review of guidelines and examples in South Europe. Water Science and Technology; 73(11): 2616-2626.
Lawrencea, P.; Adhamb, S. and Barrotta, L. (2003). Ensuring water re-use projects succeed — institutional and technical issues for treated wastewater re-use. Desalination, 152(1-3): 291-298.
Lee, H. and Tan, T.P. (2016). Singapore’s experience with reclaimed water: NEWater. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 32(4): 611-621.
Le-Minh, N.; Khan, S.J.; Drewes, J.E.; and Stuetz, R.M. (2010). Fate of antibiotics during municipal water recycling treatment processes. Water Research, 44(15): 4295-4323.
Leong, J.Y.C.; Oh, K.S.; Poh, P.E.; and Chong, M.N. (2017). Prospects of hybrid rainwater-greywater decentralised system for water recycling and reuse: A review. Journal of Cleaner Production; 142: 3014-3027.
Liehr, S; Schulz, O; and Jokisch, A. (2015). Water security and climate adaptation through storage and reuse. Institute for Social-Ecological Research. ISOE Policy Brief No. 1/2015.
McNeill, L; Almasri, M. and Mizyed, N. (2009). A sustainable approach for reusing treated wastewater in agricultural irrigation in the West Bank. Desalination Journal, 248: 315-321.
Medellín-Azuara, J.; Lund, J.R. and Howitt, R.E. (2007). Water supply analysis for restoring the Colorado River delta, Mexico. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 133(5): 462.
Middle East Regional Agricultural Program (MERAP) Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Palestine Authority (2010). Guidelines for Using Reclaimed Wastewater in Agriculture. Middle East Regional Agricultural Program, Regional Co-ordination Office, Ramallah, Palestine.
Mora-Ravelo, S. G.; Alarcón, A.; Rocandio-Rodríguez, M.; Vanoye-Eligio, V. (2016). Bioremediation of wastewater for reutilization in agricultural systems: a review. Applied Ecology and Environmental Research, 15(1): 33-50.
Myszograj, S. and Qteishat, O. (2011). Potential and limitation of wastewater reuse in the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. Civil and Environmental Engineering Reports. No. 6.
Myszograj, S.; Qteishat, O.; Sadecka, Z.; Jedrczak, A. and Suchowska-Kisielewicz, M. (2014). Possibilities of reuse of treated wastewater for irrigation purposes in the northern Jordan Valley. Environmental Protection Engineering, 40(2).
Ong, C.N. (2015). Water reuse, emerging contaminants and public health: state-of-the-art analysis. Journal of Water Resources Development, 32(4): 514-525.
Oron, G. and DeMalach, J. (1987). Reuse of domestic wastewater for irrigation in arid zones: A case study. Water Resources Bulletin, 35(5), 777-783.
Otterpohl, R.; Grottker, M.; and Lange, J. (1997). Sustainable water and waste management in urban areas. Water Science and Technology, 35(9): 121-133.
Palestine Standards Institute (PSI), (2003). Treated Wastewater, Palestine Standard No. 2003-742. Palestine Standards Institute, Ramallah, Palestine.
Palestine Standards Institute (PSI), (2012). Technical Obligatory Guidelines for Treated Wastewater Reuse (PSI 34-2012). Palestine Standards Institute, Ramallah, Palestine.
Papariantafyllou, E. and Makropoulos, C. (2013). Developing roadmaps for the sustainable management of the urban water cycle: The case of WW reuse in Athens. Proceeding of the 13th International Conference of Environmental Science and Technology. Athens, Greece, 5-7 September 2013.
Pedrero, F.; Kalavrouziotis, I.; Alarcón, J.J.; Koukoulakis, P.; and Asano, T. (2010). Use of treated municipal wastewater in irrigated agriculture—Review of some practices in Spain and Greece. Agricultural Water Management, 97:1233–1241.
Perraton, S.C.; Blackwell, B.D.; Fischer, A.; Gaston, T.F. and Meyers, G.D. (2014): Systemic barriers to wastewater reuse in Australia: some jurisdictional examples, Australasian Journal of Environmental Management.
Pescod, M.B. (1992). Wastewater treatment and use in agriculture. UNFAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 47.
Pinto, U. and Maheshwari, B.L. (2015) Sustainable graywater reuse for residential landscape irrigation – a critical review, Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment, 13(3): 250-264.
Qadir, M., Sharma, B.R., Bruggeman, A., Choukr-Allah, R., Karajeh, F. (2007). Nonconventional water resources and opportunities for water augmentation to achieve food security in water scarce countries. Agricultural Water Management, 87 (1): 2–22.
Sanchez-Flores, R.; Conner, A. and Kaiser, R. (2016). The regulatory framework of reclaimed wastewater for potable reuse in the United States. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 32(4): 536-558.
Siebe, C.; Chapela-Lara, M.; Cayetano-Salazar, M.; Prado, M.; and Siemens, J (2016). Effects of more than 100 years of irrigation with Mexico City’s wastewater in the Mezquital Valley (Mexico). Chapter from: Hiroshan Hettiarachchi and Reza Ardakanian (eds). Safe Use of Wastewater in Agriculture: Good Practice ExamplesUNU-FLORES 2016
Simons, G.W.H; Bastiaanssen, W.G.M. and Immerzeel, W.W. (2015). Water reuse in river basins with multiple users: A literature review. Journal of hydrology, 522: 558-571.
Shomar, B. and Dare, A. (2014). Ten key research issues for integrated and sustainable wastewater reuse in the Middle East. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 22: 5699-5710.
Tal, A. (2016). Rethinking the sustainability of Israel's irrigation practices in the Drylands. Water Research, 90: 387-394
Tortajada, C. and Ong, C.N. (2016). Reused water policies for potable use. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 32(4): 500-502.
U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO), 2016. AQUASTAT Main Database. Website accessed on [19/02/2017 14:37]
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), (2018). The World Factbook: Israel. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/is.html> (May 29, 2018).
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1982. Current Population Reports, Series P-23, No. 116. Ancestry and Language in the United States: November 1979. Washington, D.C., USA.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, (2012). Guidelines for water reuse. EPA/600/R-12/618 | September 2012.
van Rensburg, P. (2016). Overcoming global water reuse barriers: the Windhoek experience. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 32(4): 622-636.
Wiener, M.; Jafver, C. and Nies, L. (2016). The assessment of water use and reuse through reported data: A US case study. Science of the Total Environment, 539: 70-77.
Woltersdorf, L.; Liehr, S.; Scheidegger, R.; and P. Döll (2014). Small-scale water reuse for urban agriculture in Namibia: Modeling water flows and productivity. Urban Water Journal.
World Bank (2017). The World Bank website <http://data.worldbank.org/indicator> (May 29, 2017).
World Health Organization (WHO), (1973). Reuse of effluents: methods of wastewater treatment and health safeguards, report of a WHO meeting of experts. Technical Report Series No. 17, World Health Organization, Geneva.
World Health Organization (WHO), (1989). Health Guidelines for the Use of Wastewater in Agriculture and Aquaculture. Report of WHO Scientific Group. WHO Technical Report Series 778. WHO, Geneva.
World Health Organization (WHO), (2006). WHO Guidelines for the Safe Use of Wastewater, Excreta and Greywater, 1: Policy and regulatory aspects. World Health Organization Press, Geneva.
Zavala, M.Á.L.; Vega, R.C. and Miranda, R.A.L. (2016). Potential of rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse for water consumption reduction and wastewater minimization. Water, 8, 264.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2020: Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater and Water Desalination and Reuse
Pages: 16 - 30
Editors: Sajjad Ahmad, Ph.D., and Regan Murray, Ph.D.
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8298-8
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: May 14, 2020
Published in print: May 14, 2020
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.