Study on Recycling Urban Wastewater for Non-Potable Uses for Water Conservation

This study aims to investigate the feasibility of recycling urban wastewater for non-potable purposes and to reduce potable water usage in the eThekwini Municipal region in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Three different potential users of recycled water were investigated, including residential households, industrial users, and irrigation schemes. For residential users, the water uses for low- and high-income households were investigated. For industrial use, one particular industry was investigated, and for irrigation schemes, three golf courses were investigated. Some of the factors were expected to affect feasibility, such as economic, social, and environmental issues. In this study economic and environmental feasibility were not considered as we were investigating water conservation. The study showed that industrial and irrigation uses are more feasible options for recycled water reuse as compared to residential use due to the low social acceptance of the project.