Wastewater Treatment and Reuse for Sustainable Water Resources Management: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Wastewater treatment involves the extraction of pollutants, removal of coarse particles, and elimination of toxicants. Moreover, wastewater treatment kills pathogens and produces bio-methane and fresh manure for agricultural production. The connection between waste management and sustainability created the basis for this research. Wastewater treatment is part of the efforts to minimize water waste, minimize pressure on natural sources of water, and create a pathway for clean energy. A systematic literature review was selected for this study to evaluate and synthesize the available evidence in support of wastewater treatment for both economic and environmental sustainability. The articles were evaluated using the PRISMA framework to identify the most appropriate articles for inclusion. A total of 46 articles were selected based on their content validity, relevance to the research question, strength of evidence, year of publication (2000–2023), and relevance to sustainable resource management. The findings indicate that wastewater treatment enables sustainable resource management by improving the supply of clean water, and minimizing pressure on natural resources, energy recovery, and agricultural support. Wastewater treatment provides one of the most sustainable approaches to water conservation, energy production, and agricultural productivity.

Ultrasonically Assisted Electrocoagulation Combined with Zeolite in Compost Wastewater Treatment

“…Population growth, industrialization, and urbanization are leading to ever-increasing quantities of wastewater with a very complex composition. Therefore, there is a growing need for efficient wastewater treatment solutions that enable reuse and recycling [1]. This approach is in line with the principles of the circular economy, which is widely recognized as a model for sustainable development and the prevention of drinking water shortages in the future.…”

How Does Irrigation with Wastewater Affect the Physical Soil Properties and the Root Growth of Sugarcane under Subsurface Drip?

“…The results of this study have agronomic and environmental importance. The use of TSE in irrigation is a water reuse approach that helps reduce water scarcity and water body pollution [89][90][91][92]. However, we should carefully consider its potential impact on soil and crops [93,94].…”

Current trends and future directions of global research on wastewater to energy: a bibliometric analysis and review

“…Key SDGs contributed by ‘wastewater to energy’ include SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) by reducing pollution and increasing water recycling and safe reuse, SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) through the generation of renewable energy from wastewater, contributing to more sustainable and affordable energy sources, and SDG 13 (Climate Action) by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment processes and utilising energy recovery methods. Reduction of energy consumption in WWTPs is of critical importance to sustaining urban wastewater treatment and reuse (Silva 2023 ).…”

“…Innovative technologies have been developed to turn biogas into hydrogen, such as the use of iron ore (ARENA 2019 ) or biochar (Patel et al 2020 ) as catalysts. There have been reviews conducted on energy recovery from wastewater, most of which focus on specific topics, including biogas production from anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge for on-demand electricity generation (Lafratta et al 2020 ), methane production from sewage sludge (Choi et al 2018 ), aerobic granular sludge (Purba et al 2022 ), wastewater treatment for sustainable water resources management (Silva 2023 ), and microbial electrochemical technologies (Deng et al 2023 ). Bio-hydrogen production from wastewater (Islam et al 2021 ) and resource recovery from municipal WWTPs as water, energy, nitrogen, and phosphorus (Kehrein et al 2020 ) have also been examined.…”