Maximum use of resources present in domestic “used water”

The approach of up-concentration of municipal effluent at arrival at the water treatment plant followed by anaerobic digestion of organics and maximal reuse of the mineral nutrients and water is estimated to have a total cost of the order €0.9/m3; the latter is comparable to that of conventional aerobic treatment technologies which has little or no reuse. It is argued that in view of the fact that recovered nutrients will become of increasing economic and ecological value, this new conceptual design for the treatment of “used water” will become feasible in the next decade.