Abstract
People's attitudes are a key issue in the use of reclaimed wastewater. Unfortunately, there is not enough research on the use of reclaimed wastewater in developing countries such as Iran. The present study aimed to investigate public acceptance and citizens' attitudes toward reclaimed wastewater in Shiraz, Iran. A two-part questionnaire, designed to collect demographic data and information about people's willingness to reuse wastewater, was distributed among 562 citizens of Shiraz. The results showed that most respondents knew nothing about the chemical quality (67.4%) or microbiological quality (81.5%) of the wastewater treatment plant effluent. The maximum acceptance of treated wastewater use was related to public consumption (87%), car washing (85%) and flush tank (80%), respectively. The minimum acceptance was related to cooking and drinking (8%). Also, a significant correlation was observed between citizens' willingness to use reclaimed wastewater and variables such as level of education, gender, awareness of wastewater treatment process and awareness of quality of reclaimed wastewater. Shiraz citizens, like other people in the world, were less willing to use reclaimed wastewater for cooking, drinking, laundry and bathing, but their willingness was obviously greater in applications with less skin contact.
Highlights
During recent decades, increasing water demand on one hand and increasing droughts and imbalance in rainfall in different areas of the world on the other have clearly highlighted the importance of alternative sources of water (Menegaki et al ; Bakopoulou et al )
The present study showed that Shiraz citizens strongly agreed with reclaimed wastewater use in applications such as public consumption (87.7%), car washing (85.8%), air conditioning (70.1%), flush tank (81%), house cleaning (68.7%) and even agricultural irrigation (64.8% and 56.4% for crops which are consumed cooked and raw, respectively)
The results of the present study showed that respondents with an academic education were more likely to use reclaimed wastewater for cooking, car washing, flush tank, air conditioning and public consumption
Summary
During recent decades, increasing water demand on one hand and increasing droughts and imbalance in rainfall in different areas of the world on the other have clearly highlighted the importance of alternative sources of water (Menegaki et al ; Bakopoulou et al ). In the past three decades, focus on wastewater reuse has significantly increased (Tram Vo et al ) and today, in many. Public opposition before, during and after implementation of such projects can lead to failure (Friedler et al ). It has been reported that in the 1990s in the United States, a number of wastewater reuse projects stalled due to strong public opposition and even people had used terms like ‘Toilet to Tap’ and ‘Sewage Beverage’ to describe
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