Research project Water scarcity is a serious global problem that affects the world’s poorest the most.
This project addresses major challenges relating to wastewater reuse from a multidisciplinary perspective. Decision makers’ and the general public’s widespread negative attitude towards use of reclaimed water is one that also makes implementation of water treatment techniques a much wider task than developing and validating efficient treatment techniques and applications. The overall goal is to provide knowledge that contributes to the development of an efficient wastewater treatment methodology with low environmental impact and resilient use of local resources.
Vetenskapsrådet: Forskningsbidrag Stora utlysningen 2018 (Utvecklingsforskning)
In addition to the task of developing and validating efficient treatment techniques and processes for water purification and disposal of the adsorbents, there is also a major societal challenge to take into account when it comes to how to reuse wastewater. It deals with the negative attitudes of decision-makers and the general public towards the reuse of treated wastewater and is a critical factor to understand and manage in order to be able to implement the water treatment techniques that are developed in a sustainable way. In the project, we will therefore analyze how reuse of wastewater is communicated in society, partly in policy and partly in the media, and this with the knowledge that communication about water looks different in different cultures and in different types of contexts. We will also examine the attitudes of decision - makers and the general public to the use of recycled water and related policies, as the attitudes of individuals have a major impact on acceptance.
