Driving Water Reuse by New Technologies, Land Use and Infrastructure Planning, and Legislation Policies

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have set targets for climate protection until 2030. Increasing periods of drought in many countries have shown that water supplies are reaching their limits. Reusing treated wastewater, available in predictable quantities daily, is an important approach, along with the storage of rainwater. To achieve the SDGs, new technologies, planning strategies, and legislative policies must be developed or improved to drive the use of recycled wastewater. Municipalities, industry, and agriculture can reduce water stress by reusing treated wastewater for purposes such as street cleaning, refilling cooling water, and crop irrigation.

Most countries have regulations for discharging treated wastewater, but advanced regulations for reused water according to the "fit-for-purpose" principle are sometimes lacking. Advanced treatment steps and their implementation are essential for wastewater treatment so that treated water meets the "fit-for-purpose" standard.

Holistic water management concepts improve the situation around scarce water locally and regionally. Only a few countries have implemented holistic integrated water management strategies including wastewater reuse, which is why further research is needed. Only in this way will it be possible to achieve SDG 6 in the near future.