Pathway to Scaling up Onsite Non-potable Water Systems

Water is a defining issue of our time. Water and sanitation systems are stressed as infrastructure systems are aging, climate and weather patterns are changing, and populations are moving and rapidly growing. The ability to provide reliable, safe water and sanitation services is becoming increasingly difficult for communities across the world. This chapter focuses on localized solutions to treating water onsite for reuse on a small scale. Utilities can enable and allow decentralized, neighborhood-scale water treatment systems by creating shared responsibility and ownership of managing water resources within the community. This chapter highlights numerous examples from around the world, projects and lessons learned so that they may share proof of concepts to encourage transformation. Looking to the future, opportunities exist for localized systems to not only produce non-potable water, but become vehicles for resource recovery, tapping into the potential for thermal heat, nutrient and biosolids recovery, as well as a potential source of drinking water.