The 2017 edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) explores the issue of wastewater and its potential as a sustainable resource. However, the findings show how much work has to be done: “Worldwide, the vast majority of wastewater is neither collected nor treated. Furthermore, wastewater collection per se is not synonymous with wastewater treatment. In many cases, collected wastewater is merely discharged directly into the environment without any treatment. Agricultural runoff is almost never collected or treated, so that metrics for these types of wastewater flows are practically non-existent.”
UNESCO (2017). WASTEWATER The Untapped Ressource
Food security and productive sanitation (WG5)Greywater or wastewaterEnglishWater (irrigation, process, other)