Technical–Economic Evaluation of Water Reuse at the WWTP El Salitre (Bogotá, Colombia): Example of Circular Economy

Abstract

Water resource management should be conducted from a multidisciplinary perspective. In this sense, the objective of this work is to analyze, from the perspective of the circular economy, the technical–economic feasibility of implementing different alternatives for the regeneration of wastewater for its subsequent reuse in industrial and sports companies located in Bogotá, Colombia. The development of the methodology is carried out through the method of economic cost–benefit analysis (ACB) and the technique of net present value (NPV). These methodologies facilitate decision making based on the economic feasibility of recovering the initial investment costs and the operating costs during the useful life of the WWTP. Establishing the cost and price of reclaimed water is essential to the efficient management of water resources; so far, the studies carried out only focus on the economic viability of the internal costs of the system, while the private impacts and the externalities are excluded and relegated to unsubstantiated statements about the advantages of water reuse. The economic feasibility incorporating the analysis of externalities presents a total profit that ranges between 6.52 EUR/m3 for the industrial sector and 2503 EUR/m3 for the irrigation of golf courses. This analysis demonstrates the technical and economic feasibility of carrying out a circular economy where the water already used returns as a new source of supply.