Making Waves: Promoting municipal water reuse without a prevailing scarcity driver

TY - JOUR

T1 - Making Waves

T2 - Promoting municipal water reuse without a prevailing scarcity driver

AU - Duckett, Dominic

AU - Troldborg, Mads

AU - Hendry, Sarah

AU - Cousin, Hubert

N1 - Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

PY - 2024/2/1

Y1 - 2024/2/1

N2 - The wealth of water reuse research in scarcity and/or rapid urbanisation contexts, has underpinned significant change in many relatively water scarce contexts. Less progress has been achieved in water rich contexts; a fact illustrated by the lack of change on the ground. The Climate Emergency demands that all municipalities urgently contribute to more efficient resource management of water. Consequently, to advance municipal scale reuse projects in locations where scarcity is not forcing the issue, for example, Scotland, there is a need to predicate water reuse on different drivers, specifically climate change and the circular economy. Moreover, greater contextual sensitivity needs to be applied when exploring barriers to reuse to more critically exploit opportunities, for example avenues to reform complex regulatory frameworks, different contingencies around trust, and different potential degrees of the yuck factor. To achieve this, new initiatives need to be urgently undertaken to consider the barriers to reuse that will not be swept aside by the imperative of scarcity. The notion of a yum factor, whereby positive sentiments are nurtured to combat instinctive repugnance, coined as yuck by the bioethicist Arthur Caplan, is advanced as a strategic objective to promote more rapid expansion of municipal scale reuse.

AB - The wealth of water reuse research in scarcity and/or rapid urbanisation contexts, has underpinned significant change in many relatively water scarce contexts. Less progress has been achieved in water rich contexts; a fact illustrated by the lack of change on the ground. The Climate Emergency demands that all municipalities urgently contribute to more efficient resource management of water. Consequently, to advance municipal scale reuse projects in locations where scarcity is not forcing the issue, for example, Scotland, there is a need to predicate water reuse on different drivers, specifically climate change and the circular economy. Moreover, greater contextual sensitivity needs to be applied when exploring barriers to reuse to more critically exploit opportunities, for example avenues to reform complex regulatory frameworks, different contingencies around trust, and different potential degrees of the yuck factor. To achieve this, new initiatives need to be urgently undertaken to consider the barriers to reuse that will not be swept aside by the imperative of scarcity. The notion of a yum factor, whereby positive sentiments are nurtured to combat instinctive repugnance, coined as yuck by the bioethicist Arthur Caplan, is advanced as a strategic objective to promote more rapid expansion of municipal scale reuse.

KW - water

KW - Water scarcity

KW - water reuse

KW - Water justice

KW - Water abundance

KW - Public acceptance

KW - Water rich

KW - Foundation for water reuse

KW - Water security

U2 - 10.1016/j.watres.2023.120965

DO - 10.1016/j.watres.2023.120965

M3 - Article

C2 - 38096725

SN - 0043-1354

VL - 249

JO - Water Research

JF - Water Research

M1 - 120965

ER -