Assessment and reform of greywater reuse policies and practice: a case study from Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Abstract

This article presents an assessment of one of the earliest greywater reuse (GWR) experiences in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE). In 2003, the Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA) imposed a compulsory GWR program on various categories of new buildings in the city. However, implementation of the program faced significant resistance and setbacks and remained limited to about 200 buildings, representing less than 2% water savings. In the analysis presented in this study, the need for GWR was assessed through analyzing SEWA's water supply and demand projections, conducting a 12-month water use survey of 285,000 Sharjah residents from about 140 nationalities, and identifying the areas in the city with intense water use. In addition, analysis and reforms of the various aspects of SEWA's GWR reuse policies and practice were presented and discussed. Reforming the policy to increase GWR to about 10% water savings can lead to significant reductions in desalinated water consumption and wastewater generation and consequently significant reductions in desalination cost (35 million USD/y), energy consumption (225,840 MWh/year) and CO2 emissions (120 ton/year). The case study presented in the article can serve as a reference to guide GWR policies and practice, especially for local authorities in developing countries.

Water Reuse in a Municipal Sports Center

“…For lawn irrigation, the same requirements were adopted. 3 Recommended limit: Free residual chlorine 0.2 -0.6 mg/L [16,17]; pH: 6.5-9.0 [16].…”

“…The reuse of greywater (water flow originated from showers, hand basins, laundry, dish-washing) can be one of the solutions to achieve one of the major goals of urban sustainability: the water [1][2][3][4] and energy efficiency [5]. It has been estimated that about 41-91% of the domestic water use turns into greywater.…”

Water Context in Latin America and the Caribbean: Distribution, Regulations and Prospects for Water Reuse and Reclamation

“…The novelty of this study is to provide a comprehensive overview of the reuse of water, particularly greywater, a scenario with little progress in LAC compared to other regions of the world. There are many studies reviewing the literature for water reuse in EU countries [24][25][26], Arabic region [27,28], Africa [29,30], Asia [31][32][33], North America [34][35][36] and Oceania [19,37,38]. However, the literature on the distribution, regulation and prospects for water reuse in LAC is less extensive.…”