Resource recovery from drinking water production facilities: what and how much is there?

“Cost-effective, reliable production and safe transportation of high-quality drin king water th rough a comprehensive distribution network is one of the pillars of modern society that has enabled man kind to live in densely populated cities. The greatest acute health risk when consuming contaminated water are waterborne pathogens that can lead to outbreaks of diseases which in extreme cases can result in death and can affect a large proportion of the community (Baldursson & Karanis, 2011; https:// www. un.org/ sustainabledevelopment/ water-and-sanitation/ ). In addition to the safety of drin king water from a human health perspective, drin king water needs to be of a high ‘aesthetic’ quality in order to gain full consumer acceptance. Important aesthetics aspects include appearance, that is off-tastes, odors and staining (H argesheimer & Watson, 1996). Considering the vital role of providing safe drin king water to our society, it is not surprising that significant efforts have been made to develop and design regulations and guidelines that offer an authoritative reference on: (i) what defines ‘safe and good quality’ water, (ii) how it can be achieved, and (iii) how this can be ascertained. The difference between regulations and guidelines is that the first are maintained directives while guidelines are non-mandatory standards. It should be noted that the nature and form of regulations and guidelines varies among countries and regions. Similarly, and somewhat surprisingly, there is no recognized standard that jurisdictions follow in adapting existing knowledge to their own regional context. O ften this results in different safe values proposed for water quality parameters in different jurisdictions.”

(Citation: Pikaar, I., Doederer, K., van den Brand, T.P.H., et.al. – Resource recovery from drinking water production facilities: what and how much is there? – In: Resource recovery from water: Principles and application (editors: Pikaar; I., Guest, J., Ganigué; R, et.al.) – IWA Publishing – DOI: 9781780409566 – Chapter 3, p.49-60 – DOI: 10.2166/9781780409566_0049 – (2022) – (Open Access ebook))