Home : Water Reuse

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Water covers approximately 70% of the Earth's surface. Unfortunately, less than 1% of that water is fresh water that can be used for human consumption. For many years, the world enjoyed an abundance of high-quality fresh water that was inexpensive to obtain, treat, and transport. Now, many communities and industries face water shortages, deterioriating water quality, and greater demands because of population growth, tourism, recreational use, drought, seawater intrusion, and industrial expansion. As fresh water becomes harder to obtain and the demand rises, each community will have to seek for more innovative solutions to providing water for its citizens.

Although conservation was the first attempt at preserving and maintaining limited fresh water supplies, the idea of "reclaim, recycle, and reuse" has become the next big push for managing them. In fact, reuse is one of the hottest and most talked about issues in the water industry today. Even though major reuse projects around the globe have been in operation for more than a decade, this is still a fairly new idea for many people.

This website seeks to explore some of the issues involved in converting wastewater to usable water. It explores wastewater treatment as well as drinking water requirements, describes advanced treatment methods available for recycling water, touches on regulations and guidelines for reuse, and provides just a few examples of reuse in action.

Source:

Sundstrom, G. What's Driving Reuse. 1 September 2006. http://www.eponline.com/articles/54171/