Treatment Technologies and Guidelines Set for Water Reuse

Abstract

Water reuse is considered a practice that is currently embraced worldwide owing to the exacerbated water crisis, which is the result of several factors such as the increasing world population, urbanization, industrial sector, global climate change, limited water resources, and agricultural activities. Water reuse is not used intensively only in arid and semi-arid regions, which are characterized by limited water supply but can also be applied in countries that possess sufficient water resources (e.g., Brazil and Canada are implementing policies for water reuse). This chapter discusses the treatment technologies proposed for water reuse and presents some recent guidelines set for water reuse. Treatment technologies typically have three main processes: primary, secondary, and tertiary. There are several set guidelines worldwide for water reuse, however, a universal standard guideline to facilitate the reuse of reclaimed water has not been established. No federal regulations for reusing recycled water have been established in the United States; however, several individual states and territories have established specific regulations to manage reclaimed water for various purposes, including agricultural irrigation, animal watering, and crop production.