Top Barriers to Water Reuse

NickOttens

One in three people don’t have access to clean water. 80% of the world’s population already suffers from serious threats to its water security. Yet, less than 1% of water is reused - why?

NickOttens

@scraptap, @gdaigger, @R_Beshiri, do you have insight on this question?

jordan_shapiro

A lot of people, especially rural people but now increasingly city dwellers, don't have access to centralized municipal infrastructure.

Are there ways we can overcome the need for centralized systems?

Eti

Hello all, as we continue our research, we find that less than 1% of freshwater is reused -- though some prime examples exist: i.e., Israel with 87% water reused, and even potable reuse in Namibia, Singapore, Texas and Orange County in CA.

If the tech is available, why, in your opinion, are water reuse levels so low?

AquaDoc

@Eti, The reasons are for the most part "cultural" or, from a sustainability perspective, "social". This includes lack of general factual knowledge about water, taking water for granted when there is an abundance and/or not managing it properly for times of scarcity, and public ignorance about municipal infrastructure and technology capabilities and limitations. For example, only a small portion of domestic water uses requires drinking (potable) quality water; however, we treat all domestic water to the same high potable water quality standard and then struggle to maintain that standard within the subsequent storage and distribution systems because of a public perspective that only water treated to a potable quality standard is safe. The lack of trust in technology is another cultural example.