Water Reuse in 2030

An important environmental issue facing the world is the lack of sufficient freshwater resources due to population growth, climate change, and regional drought. Fresh surface and groundwater resources are finite in their ability to provide the clean water resources necessary to support the earth’s population. Water supply sources are being diminished and degraded as the disparity between supply and demand grows. It is becoming increasingly necessary to expand the use of nonconventional water resources such as reclaimed water in water-stressed areas. For water reuse to grow as a feasible water supply option, a number of technical, environmental, institutional, and socioeconomical issues need to be addressed. This project identified the factors and complexities that have a significant effect on water reuse and developed scenarios at two expert workshops, one in the U.S. and one in Australia, where challenges that will influence water reuse in the next two decades were highlighted. Analysis of these challenges led to suggestions for adaptive strategies and research foci that will help to ensure that productive steps are taken to advance water reuse.

Originally funded as WERF project Reuse-06-17.