Current status of water reuse systems in Korea

Abstract

In Korea, the current water resources will fall short by 2.6 billion tons to meet the 38 billion ton water demand in the year 2020. To overcome the future water shortage, it is desirable to minimize water consumption and to reuse treated wastewater. There are a total of 99 on-site water-recycling systems in the country. The potential capacity of the 99 systems is 429 thousands tons/day, which is 3.6% of the total service water. Compared to other industrialized countries, the number of the water recycling systems in Korea is extremely small. This is mainly due to the following reasons. First, in Korea, any building with more than 60,000 m2 of total floor space is required to install a water reuse system by law. However, only less than 0.5% of the total buildings have more than 10,000 m2. Therefore, the regulation is ineffective and merely nominal. Second, service water is supplied at low charge (0.20 US-dollar/m3 water). The inexpensive service water often discourages people to recycle treated wastewater. Third, people still think recycled water is not clean enough and can cause diseases. Therefore, they should be informed that a well-maintained recycling system does not fail to produce water with high quality.

Wastewater treatment for reuse in urban agriculture; the case of Moshi Municipality, Tanzania

“…Some of the countries include the United States and Japan (Angelakis and Durham, 2008), China (Yang and Abbaspour, 2007), Korea (Noh et al, 2004) and Israel (Wade-Miller, 2006). In Israel for example, about 65-70% of the wastewater generated is reused in agriculture (Icekson-Tal et al, 2003;Friedler et al, 2006) and in California, USA, about 67% of wastewater is reclaimed and used for crop and landscape irrigation (World Health Organisation, 2006).…”

“…Literature indicates that wastewater treatment for reuse in irrigation employs different techniques including the advanced aeration being implemented in Korea (Chung et al, 2008); the membrane filtration being implemented in Italy (Lopez et al, 2006); waste stabilization ponds being implemented in Argentina (Vélez et al, 2002), Colombia (Madera et al, 2002), Zimbabwe (Dalu and Ndamba, 2003) and Ghana (Hodgson, 2007); constructed wetlands being implemented in Italy (Lopez et al, 2006), China (Zhang et al, 2010) and Malaysia (Sim et al, 2008); and activated sludge which has been implemented in Korea (Noh et al, 2004). While most of the sophisticated systems can be able to offer high quality effluent, they are too expensive for developing countries to afford.…”

Agricultural sustainability through smart farming systems: A comparative analysis between the Republic of Korea and Republic of Uganda

“…The system uses soil moisture sensors, ultrasonic sensors, and weather forecasting algorithms that provide farmers with an automatic method of irrigating their fields while optimizing water usage by ensuring that crops receive adequate moisture. To overcome future water shortages, the government established 99 onsite water recycling systems with a potential capacity of 429 thousand tons/day (Noh et al 2004). The government of Republic of Korea has come up with advances and policies that support irrigation system sustainability e.g Agricultural water saving policy to manage agricultural Use (Quantity and Quality) (Lee et al 2022b).…”