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Abstract
Rainwater harvesting (RWH) and greywater reuse (GWR) are increasingly being considered at the building-level to achieve multiple goals. Cost-benefit assessments facilitate decision-making; however, most are focused on large-scale systems with limited information available for households from developing countries. To better understand the prioritization of costs and benefits by potential end-users in this context, this paper presents an assessment of an RWH/GWR system in low income, low consumption households in a social housing development in Colombia. From an initial household consultation, preferences related to the use of RWH/GWR were identified and three alternatives were proposed and designed. In a follow-up consultation, potential end-users were engaged with the cost-benefit of the proposed alternatives. Potential end-users prioritized the selection of the system with potable water savings of 25%, a payback period of 30 years, an internal return rate of 4.7%, and a Benefit/Cost ratio of 1.3. Of the three alternatives, this system had the median payback period, highest investment, and highest maintenance cost, but also the highest volumetric water saving and highest water and sewerage bill savings. In contrast to findings from developed countries, this indicates that minimising the cost may not be the primary decision making criteria in some developing country contexts, where perhaps a greater value is placed on conserving water resources.
Highlights
Pressures on present and future water resources availability from climate change, urbanization, and population growth are well documented
To enable the prioritization preferences of the householders to be examined, the formulation of alternative rainwater harvesting (RWH)/greywater reuse (GWR) system designs with an integrated financial assessment was undertaken, as per the steps presented in the previous section
With regards to GWR, participants stated that they were willing to reuse it in: flushing toilets (78%), house cleaning (34%), and watering plants (22%). This aligns with other studies where the willingness to use GWR for toilet flushing, the irrigation of gardens, house cleaning, and external applications has been demonstrated [34]
Summary
Pressures on present and future water resources availability from climate change, urbanization, and population growth are well documented. Despite the revised Sustainable Development Goals, which prioritize efficient water use and water conservation [1], these pressures can be prominent in developing country contexts where access to safe water may be hampered by water scarcity, as well as other socioeconomic factors and infrastructure challenges [2]. Whilst only accounting for 12% of the global demand For industry), municipal water use has received wide-spread attention, due to the reaching of the tipping point for the percentage of the world’s population residing in cities [3,4]. These include rainwater harvesting (RWH) and greywater reuse (GWR).
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