Wastewater and water reuse management: A catalyzer for resource recycling transformation
7th International Conference on Recycling and Waste Management
October 03-04, 2019 | Melbourne, Australia
Serena Caucci
UNU-FLORES, Germany
Keynote : J Environ Waste Management and Recycling
Abstract:
Water quality criteria are an indispensable part of water
recycling projects aiming to ensure the protection
of public health and the environment. In addition, criteria
can affect the development, public acceptance and the
economic viability of water recycling projects. Currently
no uniform criteria exist, but they diverge, often greatly,
between countries/states. In this talk, we briefly present the
evolution of recycling criteria worldwide and discuss emerging
issues related to ecological and public health risks that have
not addressed adequately in existing criteria. We will focus
both on EU countries. In EU countries their water recycling
framework and the lack of water recycling criteria cause of
implementation delay will be introduced while good practices
and advanced research on water reuse management will be
discussed especially in the frame of agricultural uses, direct
and indirect.
Capacity development schemes are instead fundamental to
introduce smart and safe management strategies for water
reuse. For the 70 percent of middle- and low-income countries
in rural areas, agriculture is the main source of income and
employment. In parts of the Global South, agriculture has
transformed the region economically. But depletion and
deterioration of water and land resources pose serious
challenges in sustaining this development. Using wastewater
as an economic asset makes of the safe use of wastewater
in agriculture (SUWA) as a cost-effective way to sustainably
manage resources recycling and ensure healthy produce.
This talk will bring to discussion the subject of wastewater
management, focusing on the management and business
aspect of the issue and analyze potential repercussions for
the development of a smart agriculture. The description
of good-practice examples experienced internationally
will complement the scientific base of natural resource
management. The interdependencies within the Water-Soil-
Waste will be highlighted and Nexus thinking as catalyzer for
the transformation of resource recycling defined.
Biography:
Serena Caucci works as a Senior Research Associate at UNU-FLORES, in the field of waste recycling and wastewater management. Skilled in capacity development in multi-stakeholder projects worldwide on water reuse in agriculture and has developed international collaborations in the field of microbiological risk assessment related to environmental pollution management. Before joining UNU-FLORES, she worked at the Institute of Hydrobiology of Technical University of Dresden and at the Helmholtz Center for the Environment (UFZ) on issues of wastewater management and antibiotic resistance in anthropogenic environment.
E-mail: caucci@unu.edu
PDF HTML